New Year, New WIP

Yesterday I told you about my tradition of buying myself Christmas gifts.  Well, I also have another tradition of starting a project on New Year's Day.  What's that you say?  That I already have unfinished projects on needles?  Yes, I do indeed.  But when has that ever stopped me from starting another one? :-)

2015's New Year project will be a(nother) pair of socks for my husband: Inside Out, from a discontinued Plymouth yarn called Zino (75% wool/ 25% nylon). This will be a good carry-around project, in my always-too-full kniting bag/purse.  I haven't had a chance to cast on yet, but will do so right after dinner!


~mz

Wait a minute...

... how did nearly a whole entire month go by so quickly? I've been up to a lot of fun stuff! (Beware, this post has a lot of photos)

I bought some fat quarters to make some aprons. There is a shop nearby called Quilts & Kreations that I've been dying to go to for years.  Finally got a chance and bought enough fabric to make 2 of these full-length aprons from KateWares. I want to try making them fully reversible, with a pocket on each side. Pretty fabrics, huh?

A coworker has given me (so far) 4 big bags of vintage fabrics, which belonged to her mother.  Here are some of my favorites:

 

The fabric below, with the cherries, is one of the vintage fabrics that my coworker gave me. I'm using it to make an apron for her! Lots of new skills to learn, including sewing with bias tape and making buttonholes.

Because of this new hobby obsession, I've also spent some time carving out a new sewing room in my house.  Here's the fabric storage:

 
... and the cutting/sewing table. Check out Tippy (my dress form) posing for the camera:

Knitting has been happening, too. I'm working on a pair of knee-high socks.  Nearly finished with the first one:

Fun times!  What have you been up to?

~mz

2014 Great Lakes Fiber Show, part 2

Here's the rest of the story:

I picked up some fantastic buttons from Small and Beautiful Beads, who is a distributor of Kazuri beads.  These buttons are just screaming to be added to a sweater, don'tcha think?

If you don't know about Kazuri, read all about it here.  I will forever be a fan and a supporter.

My husband loves wearing hand-knit socks, so I almost always have a pair on my needles for him. Seriously ... I think he has more hand-knit socks than I do. At this year's show, though, I bought him 2 pairs of socks with alpaca (which is warmer than wool), acrylic and nylon.  He was teasing me about how much he deserves socks made of 100% alpaca. But 100% alpaca socks would not hold up  to being worn in shoes and boots.  However, one of the pairs I bought him has 80% alpaca, which is the highest alpaca content I could find.  The other pair, shown above, is (only!) 50% alpaca.  I hope he likes them, once it is cool enough to actually wear them. Maybe one day I will knit him a pair of 100% alpaca socks, just because I can.  He's worth it, even if it won't be the most practical pair of socks in the world. 

The kitties also got a pile of felted catnip balls.  Some of which are already shredded to bits.  No point in photographing those :-)

All in all, a successful trip this year.  Now, let's see how much of this fiber I can spin up before next May.  Some of what I spin up will be entered into the skein competition.

~mz

A knitter's truth

It is a truth universally acknowledged (among sock knitters, anyway), that knitters who know people with feet -- want to knit them socks.  And so I did.

This is the Tom and Ethel pattern that I showed y'all a while back, and they are for my grandmother (whose name is Ethel).  They are still a bit damp, but they will be dry soon, and I'll send them off to her for Mother's Day.

I am REALLY tempted to start something else but ... since this is supposed to be #finishorfrog2014, I better stop starting stuff and start finishing stuff.  So I've picked up the Madman with a Box socks (sorry, no picture yet. But soon!).  Hmmm ... maybe I'll go knit on them now.  Until later, friends.

~mz

And another one's done ...

I went to bed early-ish last night.  However, instead of going right to sleep, I listened to a few chapters of Dracula (via my very favorite podcast, CraftLit). Next thing I knew, the toe of the second sock was finished, all of the stray ends were woven in and I was done!

Next up is to finish the socks I started for my brother in June of 2012 ... 

~mz

sock frustration!

so. i have reknitted this sock heel for the 3rd time i think, but it's still not quite right. see, when i finished the leg and divided the stitches for the heel/foot, i had to do so in such a way that i ended up with 52 stitches on needle 1 and 48 stitches on needle 2. no big deal. but the heel was supposed to be knitted on the 52 needle 1 stitches. what did i do? i didn't read the pattern and i did them on the 48 needle 2 stitches. grrrrrrr ... i flat-out refuse to rip and reknit this stupid heel, especially since i had to spend a lot of time untangling the yarn from the other 2 times i ripped it out. so, i'm just going to get on with it as-freakin'-is, and do the same thing for the second sock ... IF i can ever get to that point -sigh- i would REALLY like to have these socks done in time to gift to my honey for christmas, but lately i've been thinking of other holiday knitting i would like to do:

• a set of dishcloths for my momma
• a set of washcloths and/or a set of hand towels for my grandmother
• hats for my nephews
• a handmade gift for a white elephant exchange with my knitty friends
• maybe a nice set of dish/wash cloths for my honey's mom 
• and of course a bunch of holiday baking for friends and family. 

the baking is the sort of thing that i would ordinarily do the week or so before christmas.  this year, though,  i'm heading out to tucson on december 20 so that will severely abbreviate my baking time.  i guess i COULD bake before i leave and mail out the gifts before vacation.  or i could wait and have a more leisurely time of it once i get back.  i figure if gifts are received before the new year then they're TECHnically not late :-)  wonder if the gift receivers will see it that way!


well, dear readers, mz really must get back to this pile of stuff on my desk that needs to be handled before the end of business today.  here's hopinig y'all are having a wonderful friday and are gearing up for a fun weekend.  if you're in northeast or north central ohio like i am, be ready for more unseasonably warm temperatures ... get out there and enjoy!!


~mz

Day 3

I had so much fun with a group of knitting friends from work today! On Tuesday nights we meet up in Azariah's, the library cafe, after work for an hour or so of knitting. I made so much progress on Eric's sock #1 ... almost finished with the heel. Yay!! Another woman in the group was knitting a long sleeved t-shirt out of laceweight silk. It was turning out to be a beautiful fabric. I'd love to try knitting one myself. Next week I'll try to remember to ask her where she found the pattern. There was also a new knitter there who was knitting her first scarf. The rest of us are so excited to enable her as much as possible! I think her next project will be a hat in the round on circular needles. How exciting ... I'm proud to be a pretty good enabler. Just ask my friends!

Well now. It's taken me forever to write this post. I've been writing between folding loads of laundry and watching some of my shows that were recorded in the DVR. That's enough housework for one night. It's high time I turn of the computer, go get a midnight snack and cozy up with this sock and finish the heel already. I'm happy that I'm working the late shift tomorrow and can sleep in a bit in the morning.

Talk to y'all again tomorrow!

~mz

quick check-in

hi everyone!

it's been a long time since i've blogged but a LOT has happened in the past couple of months. i got a new job at Oberlin College, my alma mater, where i am the newest reference librarian. incidentally, i worked here as a student (back in the dark ages, it seems), and it is kinda neat to work here as a "grown-up." so i interviewed for the position near the end of july, the position was offered to me 6 days after that, and set my official start date for 3 weeks after THAT. needless to say, there was a lot of stuff to take care of, between resigning my former position, finding a place to live, getting packed and moved, and getting unpacked and settled in ... all in a very short time frame. not only that, but my honey (and his 2 cats) moved with me (and my cat) and it's been interesting to merge households and stuff.

but all is well! work is great, home is great and i am really loving life. i finally got all my yarn unpacked this week and my "craft room" is starting to shape up. it really looks like a yarn shop in there, with all the wire cubes set up and full. i recently got into scrapbooking (gasp -- another hobby!) and this weekend i hope to set up a table with folding leaves in there. that way, when i'm using the table it can be opened up, and when i'm not i'll push it into a corner or something.

anyway, it's october and you know what that means: SOCKTOBERFEST 2009!! who's in? i have 2 pairs of socks on my needles right now, both of which i have been working on since this past june. seriously. it's time to finish up! one pair is SO CLOSE to being finished. i'm planning to work on it while i wait at the doctor's office later this afternoon. the other pair is for my honey, which i *intended* to give him for his birthday (which was this past monday) ... that SO didn't happen. i'm making him Treads (Rav link), and with 100 stitches on size 0 needles, and a leg that is to be 10" long, these are truly a labor of love. wanna see?



won't they just be lovely? i'm aiming to make a lot more progress during Socktoberfest ... oh, did i mention that i'm still on the first sock? oy.

one more thing before i go. i've already started thinking about what to get myself for christmas!! i have, oh, about $300 worth of sock yarn, books and tools in my cart over at knitpicks, and i'm kinda thinking about splurging on that, especially if santa brings me a knitpicks gift card :-) but since i recently got hooked on scrapbooking, i'm considering joining one of those kit-of-the-month clubs such as:

Little Red Scrapbook
Paper Posies
ScrapScription

if you are into scrapbooking, too, and if you are in such a club, let me know if you like it and if i should do it too.

that's it for now, folks. talk to ya later!

~mz

i LOVE knitting socks

i almost always have socks on my needles lately. did i tell y'all how i want to be able to wear nothing but hand-knitted socks? yup. no factory-made socks for me, except for when i'm doing yardwork or something. so i've been knitting socks for myself. of course, some people just don't understand the pure joy of wearing socks that fit you perfectly. these are the folks who say stupid shit like, "why don't you just go buy some socks?" or something along those lines. but i won't let that get me down! i'll just keep knitting, just keep knitting. here's my latest:





the only problem that i'm having is that i'm going to run out of yarn. see, what had happened was, i didn't read the yarn label, which would have told me clear as day that i need 150g to make a pair of socks. well, duh, i only have 100g so i'm clearly going to run out of yarn. now, i thought about ripping the sock out and reknitting it with a shorter cuff/leg, but i don't wanna!!! so ... i'm going to do what any self-respecting yarn collector, er, i mean, knitter would do, i'm buying more yarn!! i'm buying one to finish the socks and 3 more so i can knit another pair. the plan is to knit most of my socks with the yarn i already have, until i get to the toes, which i will knit with the new yarn i'm buying. that way, the different dye lots won't be as visible, at least not when i'm wearing shoes with my socks. right? genius!

but now i'm going to watch some more of this L&O:CI marathon that's on USA. and maybe i'll eat some more chips & salsa. then maybe some more sock knitting :-)

later, taters!

~mz

no camping after all

the camping trip was canceled due to rain in the forecast, and i'm kinda glad. on saturday it poured for a while in the afternoon and it got cold. that probably would have made for a l-o-n-g weekend.

but, we did get out and do plenty o' stuff all weekend:

FRIDAY
we went for a nice long hike (about 6 or so miles) at blackhand gorge.

SATURDAY
eric suggested that we pick up my nephews (ages 5 and almost 2) and take them to malabar farm. fun trip! we petted some goats, fed some chickens and turkeys, and saw some cows. here's a one of my favorite photos:



we were going to go to mohican state park, but it ended up raining (cutting our malabar trip a little short), and it got kinda cold so we decided to do that another time.

SUNDAY
eric and i did some more hiking at prairie oaks metro park ... another 6 miles, give or take. it was a beautiful day (though a bit humid), and thankfully the rain held off. after that we went to a driving range and i spent a lot of time NOT hitting golf balls and not getting them very far when i did manage to hit 'em. but it was fun, and i posted a request on freecycle to see whether anyone had a set of ladies' golf clubs to get rid of. someone did, and i picked 'em up last night. they are right-hand clubs and i swing left but they were FREE and for that price it won't kill me to learn to swing the other way!

it was a good weekend overall, even without the camping. i decided to save my "camping trip socks" until i go on an actual camping trip. instead i finished up my red shortie socks and started another pair of socks out of this regia crazy colors yarn:



once again, i'm doing cat bordhi's basic sock pattern. i am a big fan of plain, ribbed crew socks and this pattern fits the bill!

~mz

socks update

my apologies for not blogging for a while. life's been busy here but i'll spare you the details :-) i wanted to post pics of those socks i blogged about on feb. 25. i finished them a long time ago!