In the realm of way too cute

I got Cat Bordhi's "New Pathways for Sock Knitters" a few weeks ago, but couldn't start any new socks till I finished mom's Monkeys. So last night I pulled out an extra skein of KnitPicks WotA and decided to cast on for the practice socks in the book. Aren't they adorable!!!


A closer look at how they're constructed. Probably would have shown up better if I had used lighter yarn, but these were really just for my own practice. The pattern calls for 3oz of worsted weight yarn, but these took only 25g.


With the rest of the yarn, I started the Little Coriolis pair. I got through the first sock, but I don't think I'll have enough to make the second. Guess it's time to move on to the adult sized socks.

In other news, I made myself some stitchmarkers to go along with Cat's book. They aren't pretty but they'll do.

Garden State Part 2

Okay, not really from the fiber festival, but still I bought it all the same day. Week 2 of the best deal I've ever found.


KPPM in P461L. Three skeins in total. Soon to be one of the sock patterns out of Cat Bordhi's new sock book.

School is becoming more manageable. I even went out for a drink with some of the other women in my program tonight. We worked for two hours on our take home genetics test (we were specifically told we could work together), and after all that aggravation we deserved more than the one we had.
Meet Devil Seasa... this picture is a few years old already, but considering how she's been acting in the mornings, I think it fits perfectly.

My new toys... and early WIP Wednesday

On the chance that I won't be able to blog tomorrow, it's my first day of clinical, I thought I'd show off my new toys today.

Meet my new mascot. She sits on the windowsill and watches over me while I do my homework. She's my alpaca, made out of alpaca. The kitties hate her. They also won't go near my alpaca rug, so I guess they just don't like alpacas.
She doesn't have a name yet. Her nameless state isn't really bothering me, which is surprising since I name everything else.


My WIP shot. Once again, no work on Rogue or fish this week. I'm really trying to finish these by the time I go home on Friday.
No funny on the feet shot this week. I got these in a trade for my messenger bag. I just wasn't feeling the love and traded it away. I also got more yarn for the fishies.
Why I got no other knitting done this week. I decided that if I was going to knit on Yom Kippur that it had to be charity knitting, not knitting for my own pleasure.
Here we have the ten hats I've finished for Hats for Alex. I did the two pink and three purple ones on Yom Kippur. Now that I've finished the ten I had said I would make, I may still add in a few extras before I see Pam at Rhinebeck. For size reference, the big pink one in the center is a normal newborn sized hat.


And because she was so cute, and would NOT get up, a pic of Seasa asleep on my lap.

Caturday

Before I post pics of cute kitties, I wanted to wish everyone who is celebrating a happy and healthy new year.


Now... Seasa finally stood still for some pictures, instead of coming straight at me when she saw the camera.
Here's their favorite place.. on top of any bag I put on the floor. This is why all my bags have cat hair all over them. Why is my backpack with lumpy books and pens in it so much more comfortable than the kitty pi I made them?
Seasa in the kitchen, eagerly awaiting a treat. Too bad all I had in my hands was a camera.
Oh wait.. did mommy drop something.

This is how about 90% of my pictures of her normally come out. For a cat who spends a good 18 hours a day laying around, she always seems to be moving.

Yes Turtlegirl, I did say 10 skeins of KPPM and 11 of LP Bulky for under $100.

YPF - Yarn SCORE!

So, last weekend, I went back to central Jersey for the sheep and fiber festival. Along the way I stopped at a yarn sale I heard about on Ravelry. I scored! This was some of the best SEX ever! 10 skeins of KPPM and 11 of Lamb's Pride bulky for under $100.

Meet my first skeins of KPPM:



I think these will end up being daddy socks, but no idea yet. They also have lots of brothers and sisters who will slowly come out and visit with you.

WIP Wednesday

Yes I know.. I'm posting early. But tomorrow I'm in clinical from 9-10:30, then classes from 12-1 and 1-4, then I'm hoping to go do something social. Maybe meet a few people. So, I probably wouldn't have gotten to post tomorrow.

Once again, no progress on Rogue. I'm afraid the fish will have to suffer this week so I can start working on Rogue. The fish don't have to be done till December. Only two new fish this week. So instead of lining them all up and not having enough light to take the pic, I took a flash pic of the two new ones along with the 11 skeins I have left to make fish out of. I'm going to need to find more yarn for this blanket.
And of course, my sister is already dropping hints that she wants one. I still have 20 skeins of Kuryeon that I never used, wonder if it would be too itchy and what the fish would end up looking like.

Mom's Monkeys are turning out nicely. This time the yarn is pooling, but in stripes, so it looks interesting.

Once again, the toe is not stitched up. For some reason I can't figure out, mom's socks always need to be longer than I think they should be (and longer than her foot measures out). Maybe I'm not making them wide enough. I'll have to head home and have her try them on when I finish the second one.

And for the one person on earth who hasn't seen these yet:
My KnitPicks Harmony wood interchangable set. There's really only four colours in them. Blue, Green, Purple and what I'm assuming is the natural colour. Soooooo smooth, sooooo pointy. What's not to like? I did order the size 13 tips, and one of them wouldn't thread on the cable, but KnitPicks is sending out a new set of tips.
Closer, pretty shot. This was taken without a flash and is pretty accurate colour wise.

And yes, it was a baby porcupine. Mom and Dad weren't so good about posing for a picture, and for obvious reasons, their owner didn't want to get too close to them. He did try to get dad to pose with a banana, but apparently dad is camera shy.

What I did with my Saturday..

J and I went to the Garden State Sheep and Fiber Festival today (after I spent the morning digging through a major yarn sale and scored major Koigu). Lots and lots of fuzzy creatures.. but nothing came home with me (boo hoo).

Warning: Major Fiber Pr0n (on the hoof... the off the hoof stuff I'll leave for fridays)

This gal was bigger than my cats.. and for those who have seen my kitties, that's saying something. So soft and fuzzy.


Cute little baby. I didn't get to play with this one.


No clue what these guys are.. though I think these are the gals. There wasn't a large amount of signs at this fair.


3 month old little girl sitting in a basket full of stuffed carrots. SOOOOO cute! and such a good little picture poser!


J wants to take the brown one home. Watch out G, she's gonna fence in the new backyard!


Amazing to watch. The demonstrator had a young two year old dog with him that liked to chase down the sheep and try to eat them!


Okay, I'm not really cute.. I'm totally not fuzzy, but I am interesting.. Can you guess what I am?

YPF

This week's pr0n is one of my homespuns (and a view out my bathroom window). It's a merino/silk/alpaca blend in Blueberry Patch from Susan's SpinningBunny. This was one of the fibers my mom and sister got me for Hanukkah last year.
I started with 6 oz. Since I still haven't gotten a scale, I don't know what I ended with. I know I lost a bit of it during spinning.


I'm thinking of running it through my wheel again to ply it a bit tighter. I have about 170 yards of worsted weight+. No... I haven't done a WPI on it yet. I did manage to get it relatively even, but I still have no idea what to make out of it.

Any opinions on running it back through the wheel to tighten it up? It's rather fuzzy, so even loosely plied it would probably still be rather warm.

No WIP..

I know you've all come to expect the ever growing fish blanket on Wednesdays, but there will be no pics this week. I've only managed to get two fish done since last Wednesday and it just isn't worth the time to lay them all out to add the two fish. (Especially since I'm in class today from 9-4).

The only thing that has been worked on this week are mom's Monkey Socks. I'm past the heel and on the gusset of the first one.

For those who are curious about my first week of school... well, I'm enjoying it, but having issues with the waking up part.

Next week..

Sorry I missed YPF this week. The first week of school was more work than I thought. I have 12 chapters to read between embryology and physiology for Monday. Not to mention the three chapters for genetics I read after the class because our TA didn't think we needed to prepare.

Now granted.. most of the physiology is a review of high school and college bio at the moment, but I'm a long way out from both of those so I'm actually reading it.

Hopefully I'll have the work load under better control this week and will be able to post.

The Important Answer

Time to answer the most common question I get:

The fish blanket pattern is....

Festive Fish from Knitter's Magazine Summer 1998 #51.

Now, this magazine is awfully hard to find anymore. Trust me, I've been trying to get my hands on it forever.

So for those of us who don't want to spend uber money on a back issue of a magazine, the pattern is also available in: Knitter's Dozen: Babies and Toddlers.

Thankfully, the publisher took pity on us all and republished the pattern. Actually, I personally think it was done to keep us all from posting scans of the magazine online and justifying it by saying, "It's not available any other way"

WIP Wednesday

I'll apologize for the pics upfront. I took over twenty shots of the three projects today and got maybe four decent ones. There's just not enough sunlight in my apartment this early in the morning and I have to be in school this afternoon so can't wait for the sun.

First up, the fish! 39 down! I think this is going to be the actual width of the blanket, considering it only needs to fit a twin sized bed. Which means I'm about half done! Seems like 70 or 75 fish should do it. Now the problem becomes what yarn to use. I already ordered all the blues, greens and browns that knitpicks has. Maybe I'll try elann this time, or go back and order a few more from knitpicks. I'm still in love with this project, we'll see what happens when I have to start sewing it together.
What I did in my Grad Student Orientation yesterday. I was a good girl and paid attention while the Dean, Assistant Dean and the important people were talking, but once the afternoon sessions started and it was all info tech and such like that I pulled out the knitting. All that's left now is to graft the toe and then weave in the ends on both socks.
When I finished the sock, there was still another hour or so of people talking at us, so I casted on for mom's socks. The knitpick needles are NICE! Never been so easy to do a twisted rib before.

Once again, no progress on Rogue. Guess I need to get working on that one.

Thank you..

This is a thank you post for all those who said "Go to Lane Bryant". I found not one but two styles I liked and found out I was a bit bigger than I thought. On the plus side of it all, I bought a smaller size Metro Pants this time, so maybe a bit of me is smaller than I thought.

Yarn Pr0n Saturday

Sorry I'm a day late, but I just had to post about my new present yesterday.



Yarn: Handspun by me
Fiber: 100% Merino
Yardage: about 176yds
Weight: No clue... I really need a scale

This was the first "fancy" fiber I ever bought. I got it at Twist when I went for my spinning lesson, probably over a year ago. Why it's so fuzzy, I have no idea. This was my first time spinning merino, and you can tell I have a few spots that aren't spun quite evenly. I really didn't enjoy spinning the merino... maybe I'm doing something wrong but it seemed like way too much work compared to other fibers.