So we arrived in the middle of night on Sunday. It was a long drive. Up to Columbus, OH, everything basically is as flat as they can be, not any different from driving anywhere in Illinois. Then past Columbus, oh my, hills and curves, up and down and side to side.

One interesting thing I remember when we crossed West Virginia (first time), it took us 12 minutes. Hah.

On Monday, we didn’t do much. We went to the Zoo for a quick walk late afternoon/early evening. We caught a glimpse of Giant Pandas, and that was about it. And oh boy, they were as exciting as I expected. They were either sleeping or eating. Hah. I don’t have any pictures from it though. Maybe we’ll go back, maybe we won’t.

Yesterday, we went to the National Portrait Gallery/American Art Museum, and National Air and Space Museum.

  

So far, I’d say our highlight of the trip has been Katie’s new cat, Coco. She’s such a good little kitty, so friendly. And she has decided that I make an excellent cat bed.

… to be continued.

So, Washington DC, here we come!

Actually, we’re heading to a suburb in Maryland. Well, close enough. We’ll be there for about a week, “visiting” Chris’s sister and doing some tourist things, since.. after all, we’re out of towners.

Things are almost packed, and we’ll be leaving at the crack of the dawn tomorrow morning, or well, today, I suppose.

Before leaving, a poorly lit picture of finished pair of socks.

Waving Lace socks. Araucania Ranco solid in color 101. Used 2.5 mm needles and I’m pretty certain I followed the pattern as written, which is very rare.

And a pair of sock in the works. Actually, a mock up of a pattern in the works.

I’m not quite loving the look, but the basic concept is there. I think for the actual pattern to come, it needs to be more refined of course. It’s just one of my many insane ideas floating in my head. We’ll see how things go.

Okay, I think I should get couple of hours of shuteye, even though I’m not at all tired….

Finally, finished picture of Lucy in the Sky. Oh yes, I even sewn the buttons on!

  

I used Cascade 220 Superwash, knitted in size 7 needles (yes, I knit pretty tight). Overall, I’m pretty happy with the result. As for the back of the neckband border, instead of knitting the border and sewing it on as the pattern stated, I just knitted it on. In fact, I wanted to continue on those fancy chain detail from ssk/k2tog so I bound the back of the body kinda half way one way, and the other half from other direction to create mirror image, then picked up the stitches from both direction and sew them up in the middle. Ok, so the sewing job is pretty wonky but I don’t mind it.

  

And I even used smaller button as backing, hoping that helps the fabric pulling too much.

.. oh how much I dislike sewing the buttons on. But I think it turned out pretty well. I like the buttons I chose – nothing fancy but I tried to get something that could potentially just blend in. And I think that works quite well with the simplicity of the cardigan itself. I should just pat on my own shoulder for job done 😛

Now I’m empty handed – no real projects in progress.

On totally unrelated news, there was earthquake in Illinois on Friday morning about at 5 AM. I, of course, slept through it. Supposedly there was one around 10 in the morning too, that one I didn’t feel either.

And yet again another unrelated topic – Chris and I have decided to take a wee trip to DC, to visit his sister. We’ll be going there in early May. No specific plans as of yet other than the fact that we are going and we’re totally unprepared. This was a sudden decision, I’m not sure if I’m at all ready for it, but the idea of going somewhere itself is very exciting! Woohoo!

I really don’t think I’ve done much lately. Knitting-wise, and everything else-wise too. Maybe it’s the weather. Super unpredictable, warm and breezy one day and freezing cold the next. Oh spring! You bi-polar bear!

My Lucy in the Sky cardigan is almost done. In fact, the actual knitting part is done. Currently it’s being blocked (if you’d call leaving the damp sweater on the floor to recover “blocking”) and waiting to have some buttons put on. I even bought the buttons already too.

  

We’ll discuss the details later, when it’s actually done completely.

I finally finished up the Waving Lace socks too. Finally grafted the toe shut earlier today.

Now I’m out of things to do. Ahhhhhhh

On the side (strange and funny) note – I’ve decided to start running. By running, I mean, half way walking, half way jogging. Ok, more walking than running.

It’s kinda rather sad, really. I went out once in the early afternoon and once again early evening, both lasted about 15 minutes each. I know I only ran for this (–) much, but my legs are saying that I ran for this (———–) much. Yes, I’m so out of shape, it’s not even funny.

Granted, this was my first day trying to get off my lazy bum. I don’t really plan on running all that much this week. Just to get my body get used to doing it. I’m not even doing this for weight control or health issue. I really just want to get myself do something other than just sitting around – which is what I do all the time. Even if I stand outside for 10 minutes standing still, I’d consider that a success!

Yes, if you haven’t noticed, I’m not at all an active person.

And before I go, let me leave you with totally factoid about me: Do you know what I really hate about Cracker Jack? PEANUTS! Ok, I like caramel popcorns, I like peanuts (somewhat). I dislike caramel covered skinned peanuts in caramel popcorns!

I may have been procrastinating but not terribly lost. I’ve been actually working on few things here and there, just not too much to talk about, hence the silence.

In reference to previous post, about my possible plot for world domination: sample socks are finished, and I’m finally getting myself around trying to write out the pattern and finalizing the chart so they seem somewhat coherent. The original goal was to have the pattern ready by end of March, but we’ll see. And look, sneak preview!

    

The name is still undecided, but the better pictures and pattern (and the name of course) are coming soon-ish.

And now for my other in-progress projects.

  

Waving Lace socks are still in progress. I only happen to have one set of needles in size 1.5 (2.5mm) and I had to “borrow” it for the yet-to-be-named sample socks. So sadly, it had to be in back burner until those were done. And now that I started it back up, I’m hoping to get it done by end of the month.

And I just cast on for Lucy in the Sky last night, and got few rows done before bed. I really meant to have it started earlier but.. well, here it goes now. I think if I hurry enough I should be able to wear it at least once or so before it gets too warm outside. My first attempt at swatching was in fact last week sometime – started with size 6 (4mm) as recommended. And it turned out painfully too tight. Yes, I knit tight. I was about half a stitch over for every inch! That’s quite a difference! So I had to make a quick run over to the yarn store and had to buy size 7 (4.5mm) needles. I’m still about a bit less half a stitch over every 2 inches, but that’s a lot more forgivable. At least I can “rely” on stitches being relaxed, plus, with my lack of boobs I think it will fit just fine. I think if I were to go up another needle size, say size 8 (5mm) I probably would’ve been right on gauge, but the fabric would’ve been too loose and would probably stretch more and probably will become less than desirable fitting – or at least that’s my excuse anyway.

And… now for the yarny news.

First, I would like to thank Ariel for all these insane amount of sock yarn!

With those, now we will (eventually) have 8 pairs of twin socks. Insane! I know, we really have to get them cranking now.

And last week, I received lovely hand dyed yarn from Sanguine Gryphon. I got these with an intention of making a sweater for Chris’s mom for this upcoming Christmas.

  

Ok, I think that pretty much sums up everything that happened throughout March. There isn’t much plan for this weekend other than trying to work on Lucy cardi, and maybe finishing up the socks. It will be kinda lonely this week – Chris will be in Memphis this weekend, leaving at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning. I’ll have to survive without him and my laptop for few days. I’d say, well, I’ll miss the laptop but I have couple other computers to go to, I just have to “relocate” myself over to the computer room… but I don’t think I can find a temporary substitute for Chris. Now, who else am I going to have to annoy and bug?

… bah.