Hello, Sunshine.

In case you couldn't tell, I was feeling sorry for myself yesterday. And lately. Duh. Just want to say thanks to those of you still stopping by, reading about my knitting and my personal woes. It's really nice.

Last night I finally dragged my butt off the bed around 10, did my dishes and cleaned up the mess I had made - the kind that acrues from coming home after a trip, dumping all your shit on the ground, and saying "fuck it." I can see the floor again, which is a good thing, and the sun is shining today. I have grand plans of cleaning and organizing, and I've got a list. I think today will see more progress, at least a vacuum.

In Which Things Happen

Yesterday I got myself out of the house (dragged my depressed ass out of bed at 10 o'clock) and to my Uncle's house after a drive through the traffic-laden and beautifully rolling hills that make up the landscape going through Vallejo, Vacaville (empty and dull-looking ghost town), and the I-5 North. I made good time, considering I didn't leave until almost 12, and arrived around 2.30 when the family was all sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner. I've never understood why people eat so damned early on Thanksgiving and Christmas, I suppose it is because they like to stuff themselves, stuff themselves again, and then eat pie (get fat, get fatter, get real fat). That is the reason I was given, and while many people seem to enjoy that approach, I am not one for stuffing myself, so I waited to eat. Sugar ban notwithstanding, I did allow myself some pie and a few pumpkin cookies last night (and enjoyed the fruits of my sins with aching joints shortly thereafter). After all, it is a national holiday, and I did not eat any sugar even for my birthday. So. There it is.

All after dinner I knitted. I knit and I knit and I knit, (to keep myself from killing my family zoning out on stupid fucking dvd rentals) and then I got up this morning, drove home, did a few errands, (stopped at the new yarn shop) and I knit some more. At the end of all of that knitting, I had a sock. It's a beautiful sock with some terrible pictures, because it is damned near impossible to take a good picture of one's own foot, especially if one doesn't feel like going outside and must use the window as her source of natural light (in other words, if one is a depressed and tired sack of lonely who does not want to venture outside of her hermitage).

I present to you: The Embossed Leaves Sock

This really is a great pattern. There are a few things about it which are quite stupid, but I avoided most of them. Since it is a sample for the store, I did do one of the stupid things, and I did it for two reasons - one: so that other knitters can see how the sock is supposed to look when knit to the pattern, and two: because I was curious.

The stupid thing I did was to follow the toe exactly as it was written. This left me decreasing on the sole of the foot with a PURL 2 TOGETHER instead of a KNIT 2 TOGETHER. This made for some weird texture that I do not particularly enjoy, and so shall leave out when I make a pair for myself. But, I do think that the toe is quite neat, and I shall indeed p2tog on the top of the foot as instructed when I make my own pair. I think it's quite a clever way to echo the leaf pattern. It works quite well. See:

So, there were some odd directions that I did not follow. I did not, for example, cast on x number of stitches, knit them back and forth for a few rows, and then join to knit in the round. Um, no. Stupid waste of my time right there. I cast on, joined to knit in the round, and went for it. I also did just a plain old 1x1 rib, because I was working from a photocopy and did not have the twisted rib glossary definition in front of me, and when I did look at it, it looked to be more work than I wanted to do. ALSO I DID NOT CUT THE YARN AFTER TURNING THE HEEL BEFORE I PICKED UP THE STITCHES FOR THE GUSSETS. Umm, what the fuck?! No, really - what the fuck?! was Mona Schmidt thinking with that gem? Weaving in an extra piece of fucking yarn? Everyone's most hated task? Um, yeah, fuck no.

Other than that I pretty much knit along quite happily, and got a beautiful sock out of the deal. Unfortunately it is not mine to keep, but I did have fun making it, and have decided most definitely that I want a pair for myself out of the same yarn in a different color. I really really loved the yarn. I was quite astonished by my new-found love for this yarn.

Spud and Chloe Fine by Blue Sky Alpacas. I love this yarn as much as I disliked Spud and Chole Sweater. This yarn is nice. It has awesome stitch definition, it does not split like a bitch, nor do I hate its guts. A winner right there, ladies and gents. A winner. The only quarrel I have with this yarn is that the colors do not particularly suit me. But I can live with that. And if Blue Sky Alpacas are smart (which I'm betting there are, seeing as how there is a company of alpacas somehow living in the sky AND making yarn) they will soon be releasing new colors. I'm guessing in Spring for the next knitting season. Maybe we'll all get lucky and they'll do it before then, but I doubt it.

So. Awesome yarn. 99% awesome pattern. One finished sock. It must be love.

Until next time, I leave you to contemplate the great big clouds in the sky.

Ciao.

PS - Blogger is being COMPLETELY stupid and is giving me too much space between pictures and text. Yuck. And I'm sure it's Blogger's fault and not mine, because I haven't done a thing different than normal.

I CAN HAZ FREEDOM!!!

Oh, I feel like a child let out of school for the summer holidays! I got out of work an hour early for Thanksgiving break (no work on Friday, thank god) and it is SO DELICIOUS to be outside in the daylight, an hour before I normally get off of work. Thank You God.


Tomorrow will see me making a solitary trek up to Maxwell (yeah, no one knows where it is) and eating Thanksgiving lunch, and dinner, and pie, and left-overs with the maternal side of my family. I will also be sitting around and knitting on my embossed leaves sock sample, because I am done with my baby booties.




That's right - 2 movies later and I started and finished the second one! Risky Business with a baby-faced Tom Cruise was an interesting viewing. I enjoyed the weird. And a predictable hour with Jennifer Anniston in Picture Perfect started off the night of personal indulgence - knitting, movies, sitting on my ass doing nothing much.



embossed leaves sock


Fabulous.

Proof!

Funny, how we in the knit-blog world use photos as proof of what we've been doing; beyond just show and tell. Hm.

Anyhow, here is a picture of a baby bootie part! I love how the yarn feels, it is so nice after miles and miles of Opal sock yarn on size 0 needles, ugh, not so soft.

And here is another picture of my sock yarn. It is both frustrating and inspiring to have it out all of the time. Frustrating because I haven't nearly enough time to knit it. I am just able to look at it and dream. I guess that's better than nothing, or not seeing it at all. It is really really nice to see it looking all pretty at me.

Today I played with yarn not at all, though I am hoping to get in a few rows before the end of the night. Today was more organizing of shit, and doing laundry and suchlike activities. Tomorrow shall see more unpacking. Ahh, unpacking. And I'd damned well better have it done by Tuesday, because I am meeting my mom on Thanksgiving and giving her some of my stuff to put at home there. How lucky that I have a mom with a big house and 2 extra huge buildings on the property in which we can store things! Free! No charge! Fabulous!

Ooooh, Jacoooob...

I saw Twilight last night! It was actually really great. I expected it to be completely terrible and horridly cheesy. It was actually pretty darned good. Things got a little choppy towards the end, when they were trying to fit 2 hour's worth of material into half an hour, but other than that, I was pretty impressed. And Jacob's beautiful upper body was a plus the entire time. Never mind that he has a face 10 years younger than mine and I can tell! His torso was fucking awesome.

Bella and Edward didn't even annoy me the whole time, just a third of the time. So that was a plus.

All in all, I think they told the story pretty well this time. It was a lot more interesting than the first movie. Though I still think Edward's sparkle is a little too minimal and weird. I hope they fix that on the next one.

So, Twilight - yay!

Sneaky Beast

Yarn is an insidious thing. It had me planning a purchase tonight, even though I'm not buying yarn!!! Aaah!

Talking to me, the yarn said: "look at this beautiful skein, you want some more socks, don't you? In green? Beautiful, beautiful, green, squishy yarn? Because the baby booties you're knitting with squishy green yarn right now - ooh, that yarn feels soooo good, doesn't it? Doesn't it?

Oh, you don't want to pay $27 and shipping for a skein of sock yarn - well, that skein does have silk in it, doesn't it. Ok, you don't need that extra luxury with that extra price tag just for a pair of socks - how about some lovely purple yarn instead?

Look at this beautiful purple yarn, with all of these different purples in it! Wouldn't that be just gorgeous as a pair of knee-high socks? Yes, that would be purrrfect... Hm, $25 and shipping - I wonder if you could get it for just $25? That would be better, wouldn't it? That would almost be a Really Good Deal..."

And so on. Sneaky effing yarn. Trying to get me to buy it. Uh.
Thankfully, common sense finally prevailed and the Paypal button did not get pushed tonight. Nor shall it be! I feel somewhat very guilty for having bought 4 little skeins during my yarn-fast - (2 of Willow Tweed, 2 more of the Shetland Spindrift to make sure I have enough to finish a colorwork hat) and I have put my foot down and said "No More Yarn!!!" And really - all I have to do is look at my bookcase stocked full of beautiful, beautiful squishy skeins of yarn, and I can calm down a little. It's really hard though anyway.

Also - having worked only 20 hours last week and getting only 3 days next week (Thanksgiving holiday, yo) definitely puts a crimp in the budget style. This whole supporting thyself and being responsible thing is a little annoying sometimes. I really would liked to be hired permanently next month, I am so hoping for it. Then you get Paid Time Off. No more of this whole "taking a holiday on your own dime" deal.

So - guess what - I have a portion of a baby bootie! Yes, yes I do. I would take a photograph as proof, but it is late and that's a lot of work, and anyway, it looks so much nicer in the daylight. I will endeavor to do so this weekend, when I actually get to move around outside in the daylight. That is the one little sucky thing about my job - being in an office building all day long. Yuck. I do go outside for my breaks, but still, that's only an hour out of an eight and a half hour day. Bleah. It's like living with a bunch of cave trolls, because I am one of approximately 10 (maybe 5) people who go outside in an office of 60+.

So that's me as of now. I came home and hit the hay at 7. Then around 2 this morning I woke up and after laying in bed for an hour, decided to get up and get myself tired again so that I could catch a few more hours of sleep. Thankfully, I believe it is working. I feel the tired coming on. I'm just going to knit a little until sleep or death must be had...

One Born Every Minute

I must be a sucker of some sort - I've got 4 bottles of green nail polish and about the same number of bottles of black... it would appear I've been buying a new bottle for each St. Paddy's day and Halloween for the past four years, and using them all equally - that is to say, not at all.
Uh huh.

I am in an odd state of being right now - being alone in a room in a house, surrounded by my books and clothes and stuff, pretty much everything of my life, all in one room, makes me feel very childlike, like for the 23 years I lived with my mom till I moved out. The difference between then and now is that now I'm paying for myself, and this is the most grown up I've ever been. It doesn't get any more grown up, unless you have kids or a house, neither of which are actually requisite for grown-up status. Being alone in the evening, polishing my nails with glitter (which I probably haven't done for about 10 years either) is just... bizarre.

Well, enough of that. I did yet more moving and cleaning and I'm finally beginning to be satisfied with my progress. I got all of my bathroom stuff put away, which I at first despaired of, but a neat and practical solution presented itself. I also went through all of my cosmetics (hence the rumination on the green and black) and got rid of a tidy sum. Lipstick? What was I thinking? Ugh. 5 year old lipglosses? Why am I packing those around?! Out with them! The shoebox full of nail polish though - that's all good stuff, oh yeah. My collection is different from when I first started out collecting it in 7th grade. No more blues and purples and greens (well, except for those four bottles...). Now it's pinks and reds and oranges and reddy-pinks - all colors that look great on the toes all the time. I haven't worn polish on my fingernails for at least 6 years, possibly 8.
Ok. No more cosmetic talk.

The great thing about moving is that you get yet another chance to go through your stuff and get rid of it. Give it to someone who can use it, or say "why exactly do I have this dusty old broken box filled with screws?" And then it goes into the landfill and you feel good.

I am going to put myself to bed with a little knitting, for real this time. The only real problem there is what to knit...