Where did the whole month of May go?

Not whole lot happened, but I did keep myself busy, in one way or another. I did knit a bit. A little bit. Not something I can share with the world (yet). Oh yeah, it’s all about knitting in secrets. The only non-secret knitting is that tank top I’ve been working on forever, rather, I haven’t worked on. It’s almost done. In fact, it’s been “almost done” for a bit over a month now. Geesh.

Oh and a big news (at least to me) – we have a new member to our household. Cocoa the cat has joined the family! Yes, I was cat sitting her – which meant to be for only 2 weeks but ended up being for 3 weeks. Then she went home (for 5 days)… then she packed up and decided to move in with us!

Everyone, this is Cocoa.

This is probably the best depiction of Cocoa in her “daily” life. She likes, no loves to play with string. She’s also very quiet – rarely meows, though she does squeak. Even her purring is so quiet that you can’t hear it unless she’s cuddling right next to you. Even though she enjoys her “alone time” during the day, she plays an excellent role of a lap kitty at night.

Anyways, she’s my new buddy. Silly little mitten kitten.

Today is Kitty Cat Day! Chris’s sister’s cat will be staying with us for next couple of weeks, and she should be here any moment now, so this will be short and sweet.

First affair, I did manage to finish those two remain pairs of socks before end of March. Go me!

  

On the left, is Twisted Flower by Cookie A: Dream In Color Smooshy in Wisterious, size 1.5 (2.5mm) needles. And of course, one of the twin socks with Ariel. On the right is heavily modified version of Gentleman’s Fancy Socks from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush. Again, with size 1.5 (2.5 mm) needles, in Universal Yarns Pace Step in some random bluey color. The most obvious modification being is different gauge than the pattern calls for (to accommodate the needle size), and I also carried the stitch motif down to the heel flap instead of stockinette as the pattern calls for. These socks were for Ana.

Next in agenda: a tank top. I named it “Not Picovoli”. Why? Because I intended to make Picovoli when I originally received the yarn from Ariel. Then after a bit of thinking, I decided I’m going to go for a different route. Here’s a sneak peak of the details.

  

Yes, I did hemmed details for the armhole and neckline. Yes, it was a lot of grafting than I can handle.

Anyway, it’s coming along, like it or not. I have more progress pictures on flickr and on Ravelry if anyone’s interested – it shouldn’t be too difficult to find me on either sites, really. More details on the project and my thoughts or whatever shall be discussed in later post(s). For now, I’m going back to anxiously waiting for our furry house guest to arrive. It’s all good.

Warning: this is probably a pretty picture-heavy post.

Don’t you love it when a blog post starts with a warning? (Though, personally I don’t really care)

Let’s start with stuff I finished “recently” – by which I meant in March… so far anyway.

  

From top left:
Robot mittens are finally finished. It took me next to forever to finally finished duplicate stitching the second robot. I really should mail them out to Carol now that they’re finished and now that it’s getting warmer and warmer.
And.. yet another pair of Embossed Leaves socks – except, this time, they’re for me! Used Louet Gems fingering in Pewter, with 2.5mm needles. And of course, toes and heel flaps are done my way, you know, whatever I feel like.
Burgundy Monkey socks for Sue – used Fortissima Socka, 2.5mm needles, again, heels and toes are done “whatever I want” way.

Speaking of Sue, she was first knitter/friend I met in Milwaukee, and only after about 2 months of knowing her, she’s moving. These were “farewell” socks for her. I got to see her one last time before she was leaving – in fact, she invited me to her house and let me go through quite a bit of her stash. Now I have a lot more yarn than I know what to do with:

Most of them are really neat vintage yarn. I really don’t think I’m going to bother myself trying to upload them individually to Ravelry stash page (maybe I would do that for more “current” yarn that already exist in their yarn data base). Seriously, I’m like the biggest yarn mooch in the world. My stash mostly consists of “other people’s generosity” – crazy! Thank you everyone who ever sent me yarn! Without you, I wouldn’t have anything to knit with

… so it’s true – I never turn down free yarn.

And here are my current works-in-progress. Yes, I said “plural” – I’ve joined the gang of multiple WIP’s.

  

On the left, is Twisted Flower twin socks (with Ariel, of course. On the right, is a pair of socks for Ana – she knows what it is, she knows which yarn I’m using. But I have decided to hide the actual pictures until she receives the socks. I don’t know if she reads my blog, but “just in case”. Even though I already told her which pattern & yarn I’m using, I think it’s still a bit of surprise once you actually see the actual sock (or so I’m hoping).

Even though I’m not sure how much knitting I can get done for the rest of the week this week, I’m hoping to get both of these finished by the end of March. I have a feeling there won’t be much “show & tell” kind of knitting in April – I have decided it will be (my personal) designing/pattern writing month.

… and now, it’s time for me to start picking up the apartment before my motivation runs out.

So, well… once upon a time. No, “earlier toay” I was going downstairs to take a bag of trash out, and figured, oh I might as well check the mail.

Ok, actually, let’s start with a background story. So, I have this crazy friend named Ariel. Some of you may know her as the “sock princess”, some of you may not. So, anyway, few nights ago, after hours of skyping, we decided to swap out some yarn – I was going to send her SWTC Phoenix (which mean for a Coachella), and she was going to send me her Debbie Bliss Cathay (enough for a Picovoli). And even though I (not knowing where exactly the post office is around here) haven’t sent the yarn out to her, she promptly sent me hers – and I received it on Monday.

Fast forward another day or two, we have been working on organizing her yarn. And as we were doing it, she said she was going to destash some yarn to me, as well as some paperback book. So I said, sure.

And today, I got more yarn from her. Insano!

This is all the stuff sent me within like a week period:

Yes, she’s crazy.

You know, the original plan for today was to post some socks in progress (it’s crazy – I’ve been having multiple WIP’s at once!) and some other stuff I’ve finished recently, but you know what, that will be for another day.

And now I get to read Harry Potter (the first book), thanks to Ariel. Now, where’s my big pointy hat and magic wands? (… though funny thing is, Chris has already read every single one in the series just this past summer.. and I was pretty set on not reading them. But apparently, Ariel is a lot more persuasive.)

Oh and.. hey, look! Something chocolatey!

Anyway, now I’m running into a problem where…. I have a very desperate need for more (sock sized) needles. Now I really start to miss the idea of living right by a yarn store where I can just walk over there whenever I need to – I guess I kinda took that for granted. Poo.

Ok, time for me to go wake my child.. er, boyfriend up from his wee nappy nap so we can go grocery shopping.

The end.

Ok, so this apartment is way too bright. Sun in my eyes…. seriously I have a blind spot now. So I’m taking a wee break from knitting and hey, what do you know, I’m blogging.

… let see, what have I done in past month, in the very short month of February.

My friend Ranaee was here. We went and did some tourist things. Went to a zoo, and to Milwaukee Public Museum. We tried to go for tour & fish fry at Lakefront Brewery and that totally backfired – by the time we got there, tour tickets were completely sold out, so we had to settle for just fish fry (which is another crappy story – they were extremely busy and the table pager they gave us was dead so we had to wait forever plus one). Oh and I got carded at a mall, because they thought I looked “underaged”. Seriously? Not even 18?

And I spent, or rather “wasted”, a whole week playing a game. Oh yes world – MJ has crossed the line to the dark side. MJ has played a RPG game (…. help me). I seriously spent a week, night and day, playing Fable: TLC, like, sleep deprived all night and day. And we all know that MJ doesn’t really play any games. I can barely play Mario Bros. But well, what can I say, it was stupid but it was kinda interesting. At the end, I felt like the game should have lasted longer. And at the end, as you accumulate all the points and buy all these powers & magic and such, it just got too easy. So.. yeah, the game was fun… until the end when it kinda became disappointment. As much of a waste of time it has been, one accomplishment (or lack there of) is that this was the first time I played a game and finished. So, there.

Oh and I finished a pair of socks: twin sock with Ariel, of course.

First time using STR lightweight – the color was like “well, that’s nice” – after all, color preferences are subjective thing. But my goodness, the yarn base itself is fabulous, I can see what the fuss is all about.

Right now, I’m working on couple of pairs of socks. Yes world, MJ has joined the multiple WIP club

  

On the left is Twisted Flower (Cookie A), and on the right is Embossed Leaves socks. TF is another twin sock with Ariel, and as for EL, this is the first pair I’m actually making for myself (but 3rd time making it altogether). Of course, EL is done in my butchered way – b/c as pretty as it appears to be, I don’t really like that garter detail on heel flap on the original pattern, and also the toe shaping.

Oh and last night, I invaded a local knitting group. That was totally awesome. Everyone was really nice. I’m tracking them all down one by one on Ravelry and adding them as friend. There is a ravelry group so I probably could just mass add them all, but right now I’m on a mission I figure, that way, I can remember who they are, by trying to guess by looking at their profiles/pictures/projects. Anyway…

On a random note, I’m drinking (or sipping through a straw) Strawberry Banana Juicy Juice. A bit juvenile? YES. But is it awesome? Double Yes!

… banana flavored juice is a bit weird though. You know, because banana isn’t exactly the juciest fruit. But then again, this is probably mostly apple juice anyway, with “hint of banana”.

… and I want to go to Stitch & Pitch in July, at Miller Park.

… and it was a bit awkward (actually not “awkward” but rather “pricey” would work) to order hard liquor from a pub in Milwaukee (hello.. it’s the world of Miller & PBR). Maybe it’s time for me to move onto beer.

And that concludes my babbling about nothing.

Happy Birthday to me, and a free pattern for you!

I present you, Polly Jean!

download pdf file  /  additional pictures

  

  

Enjoy!

I decided to take the “tradition” and actually post two days in a row. If this helps me to stay away from more productive things like.. doing laundry or go to Kinko’s, sure, why not.

I started on the second sock for Diamondy twin. I’m kinda strange and I rarely ever have problem with so-called SSS, or Second Sock Syndrome. But then again, now that I’ve said it, I probably jinxed it.

Look! Progress! Hooray.

Ariel thinks I’m going fast. I beg the differ. I’m doing this one at a time, she’s doing it 2 socks at once. That’s why I may “appear” to be faster. So… CHILL!

And… as you may have guessed, I am trying to make the socks identical – however, I think I’m off by a bit. It’s probably not super noticeable until the heel flap. Crap.

I know I know, what kind of crazy person trying to make an identical pair out of variegated yarn? Me, of course.

That’s it for now. Maybe there will something more exciting happening tomorrow. Maybe not.

It surely has been a while. So much happened within past about couple of months, my brain almost went numb, and motivations (to knit and anything else otherwise) went out the window… until now.

Let see, what’s new…. For starters, Chris and I moved! Goodbye Champaign (well, actually, goodbye Illinois), hello Wisconsin! Even though it’s way too cold to do anything right now but it surely is interesting to live in a city. Apparently I’m not a suburban girl anymore (for now at least).

And for the kickers, this is what I see out my window every evening, watching the cars drive by. I’m easily amused – what can I say?!

And this is what the outside looks like during the day.

Yes, that’s the lake!

Anyhow… so, well, even despite the fact that I’ve been unemployed for over a month now, I still haven’t been knitting much lately. Funny how that goes. I wanted nothing more than extra time to be able to knit more, but now that I have more than plenty, it’s hard to scavenge for motivation. Oops.

Ok, there are so many things to talk about (that, or maybe I’m just getting lazy and don’t feel like bringing it up), so I’m skipping out on pictures of what I made for Christmas last year. I made 2 Hemlock Ring Blankets and a throw pillow (if you’re curious, pictures are around somewhere on Ravelry and Flickr). I gave up on trying to finish Slipped Hours pullover on time. Eventually I’m sure…

… Last but not least, progress on twin socks with Ariel! My Triple 8 socks (c/o on 8/8/08, does that make sense?) are finally finished. And just last night (well, technically today, since it was past midnight), I casted on for a pair of Diamondy!

  

That’s it for now. Time for more knitting! … or build houses on Sims 2.

Oh the past two months has flown by, and didn’t even notice.

Ok, that’s a lie. I knew exactly what was going on in past few months.. I just didn’t know exactly what to do about them. Well.. it happens.

Honestly, knitting has been taking a back seat for a while. Didn’t really work on anything much, didn’t really start on anything new. I did manage to finish second Hemlock Ring blanket for Christmas gift. Actually, I finished it in October, but didn’t get to block it until right before Thanksgiving. And still no significant progress on Cyndi’s Slipped Hours pullover… In fact, (I hate to say this, but) this may not get done by Christmas. I mean, it’s not an impossible task, if I just sit down and work on it every evening, but I know it’s not going to happen.

  

And for the big announcement portion of this post: We’re moving!

When and where, one might ask. We’re moving to Milwaukee… and before the end of the year. Oh yes, it’s approaching really fast. And have I mentioned that I haven’t even started to pack yet?

So that should semi-explain why I have been out of my mind in past couple of months. Actually, October was just busy at work. Chris just accepted a job offer in early November, and we were just in Milwaukee during Thanksgiving break and found an apartment. (Another added note: this was my first time ever in Milwaukee)

Now I feel a wee bit better after finding a place to live. But still many questions going through my head. What are we going to do with our current place (the actual lease isn’t up until August), how are we going to move all our crap (very carefully?), when and what are we going to do about Christmas gift for people (money of course is an issue, but even with all the money in the world, it still doesn’t help that we have absolutely NO IDEA about gifts), how am I going to find a new job in Wisconsin?

… but I’m pretty sure I’ll feel much better once when I move and settle in. What a way to end a year…..

… yes, I’ll feel better in January. Or so I hope.

Oh, it’s almost that time of the year again. It’s Halloween season, by which I mean a – longer hours at work, and b – no more Sundays off (at least until November).

Oh too bad, right? I guess it’s NOT that bad. After all, this is only for a month.

So that’s that. And here’s my knitting progress (or de-progress): Slipped Hours pullover for Cyndi.

I got pretty far initially, knitting straight up from skein to skein. Then it got me worried about color variegation. So I started to alternate skeins – and it was such an obvious change that I frogged it down to hem and started back up.

And I’m now finally back to where I started. Honestly, this is the slowest knitting project for me, EVER (aside from afghans that is).

So that’s what I’ve been working on the entire time. For like almost a month now.

And… just because I can – here are my new pair of fancy new blue shoes (though it’s really dark navy, so on the pictures they look rather black).

Yes, they’re Doc Marten’s. Yes, they’re Mary Janes. Yes, they’re really blue, not black.

(… and those socks are my own design. Pattern coming soonish – like, mid November 2008. Consider yourself warned.)