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Thursday, August 11, 2005
Late Night at the Happy PlaceYesterday, I spent pretty much the entire day at the Happy Place hanging out, knitting, and buying things. It was a good day. Plus, once the workday came to an end, the irregulars started arriving, including Wendy and her honkin' huge pile of lace... how huge? Well, Kristine practised her "Sister Kristine of the Spitting Alpacas" look while Wendy continued to knit! In between stuffing my face with all of the amazing food brought by Brittany, I managed to finish a sock - these are for my sister-in-law, and are using that meadow colorway sock yarn I bought a few weeks ago. I decided to make them shorter since I have no idea how big her calves are, and I'm afraid that I wouldn't do the increases properly.  For the toes and the heel, I tried the Japanese Short Row technique that was featured in one of the past Interweaves - not sure which issue - basically, instead of doing a wrap or a yarnover when you turn, you use a stitch marker or safety pin to hold a little loop that you use to close the gap. It was a little fiddly to juggle all of the stitch markers, but I liked the way the toe/heel looked, and I like that this technique uses less yarn (so less bulk!) I'll do it again on the second sock, and perhaps I'll make it a more permanent part of my "standard sock formula."   I also finished my Knitty Messenger Bag - it took about 3.75 skeins of the cascade 220, and I LOVE it. It's the perfect size to run errands with - it holds wallet, keys, phone etc..., plus a small book and a knitting project with no problems!  And I've declared the blue socks to be done - I knit them top-down with short-row heels, and when I was completely done with sock #2, I compared it with sock #1 and realized that it was about 0.5" longer, despite my use of a row counter. {sigh}. But then I put them on my feet, realized that there was essentially no difference between the two socks, and decided that we could have a good laugh about it when I give them to her. Had they been knit toe-up, I would have unravelled and re-knit, but I'm SO not unravelling an entire completed sock that looks perfectly fine when worn with its slightly smaller mate.  But late night wasn't all about food and socks - it was also very much about buying things, and pretending that I'll have enough time to EVER knit them. The new batch of Fiddlesticks patterns came in, so of course I had to buy two - I already have the yarn for Rippling Waters, and I may shortly have the yarn for Lily (which will be for my mom, but smaller - I'm taking out some pattern repeats to make it narrower). I even ordered one of those handy magnetic chart-holder board things so that hopefully I'll be able to keep track of everything. This is, of course, assuming that I have any time to knit at all once school starts up in 2 weeks (AHHH!)   I also had to pick up the latest Rebecca - it passed the "at least 3 projects I want to knit" test, so it joined the stash of things I don't have time to knit, but maybe someday. ;)  And then, just to make the evening that much better, Kristine was offering old shop copy books "free to a good home!" I picked up a really interesting sock book, and a bunch of the dale of norway kids/baby books. You never know when you'll need an adorable baby sweater pattern!  Speaking of babies, the boyfriend got the call yesterday - he's approved to adopt Abby! He's still waiting on the house visit, but hopefully Abby will be coming home this weekend. Last night, after late night, we took a trip to Petsmart and bought a bed, and some toys, and some treats, and then to Target to stock up on paper towels (just in case!) and some cabinet locks to protect the trash and the cleaning supplies. We had an expert helping us pick out a bed - an adorable and very patient puppy was trying all of them out, and definitely had her favorites! 0 comments || # |
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