Boyfriend Socks

Is it weird that I am making myself boyfriend socks?

This was just too darn cute not to take a picture of. Kitty never ever sits on laps unless you are physically holding him there and brushing him. This is the closest he's ever come to cuddling on my lap. He was just so interested in the socks that he rested his fuzzy little head on my leg and watched (well, mostly he wanted to eat the needle whenever it came near him). It was very hard to make myself get up and come to school today because he was being so adorable.

Plus I learned how to do a figure-eight cast on. Very exciting.

I decided I am going to try to take better pictures of things, so I made a light tent kind of thing out of a cardboard box, a piece of poster board and some tracing paper. I'll take a picture of it at some point, but anyway, I tried taking a few pictures using it. I don't really have any decent lamps, so I can't really get a good picture yet, but here is the yarn I am using to make these boyfriend socks.

Also I can make hats fly. Neat.

Wooohooooooo I finished my Pomatomus socks!!!!

I love them so much. I used size 0 needles instead of 2's, so they are nice and snug (I have small feet). For some reason I got really sick of making these for a few weeks. This week though, it's spring break so the buses only come every 15 minutes and there are not very many people on them so I am guaranteed some quality waiting-for-the-bus-in-the-car time, as well as a seat on the bus so knitting on my commute is actually an option. Once I actually had a decent chance to work on them, I got far enough along that I could almost see the end and I got really fast once I got near the toes. Then the actual toe part is just stockinette, which is about a zillion times faster than the lacy pattern so I finished most of that last night and the rest this morning. This is one of my favorite projects I've ever made. Sad, huh?



(I should mention that the composition of the first picture was inspired by pictures of socks taken by photographer Jessica Tjok. Mine is obviously way crappier, but I want to give credit where it's due.)

Nothing

Um, I suppose if you have a blog, you should update it sometimes, and I haven't done that lately, so today is the day! Woo!

Here is a picture of some yarn that I Navajo plied. It's sort of like crocheting with your fingers while the yarn is spinning. Weird. What can I do with 15 yards of this???

Fae Ridge Farm

Andrea and I went to Fae Ridge Farm this weekend, and it was a ton of fun! There were very cool animals there. The ducks were hilarious and the walked in a line and they were white and orange and pretty. The merino goats (ETA there's no such thing. They are sheep. Shrug.) had curly bangs that were cute in that 3-year-old-girl-with-ringlets sort of way, and I loved them and I wanted them to be my friends.

Also, there was a lot of neat yarn and fiber. I liked the corn yarn the best. Oh, interesting. I was going to find a link to some information about corn yarn for you, but all the links I found are about how it's made with GMO corn and how this is some sort of tragedy. Well, at any rate, the yarn was fantastically soft and wonderful, and the people at the store said it was like cotton only better, softer and very durable. Here's a wikipedia article about Ingeo, the corn fiber, if you are interested.

I ordered a spinning wheel! I got a Lendrum DT from Woodland Woolworks (which I found out later is in Oregon, neat!). It's out of stock for a few weeks though, so I have to wait (and wait, and wait.....).

In the meantime, I learned how to Navajo Ply with my spindle! I don't have any pictures yet, but I have 15 yards of pretty decent 3 ply yarn now. What on earth can I make with 15 yards?

Bowl Disaster (AKA The Breakfast of Champions)

So, lately this is what I've been eating for breakfast. It is delicious, and mostly good for you. It has protein, omega-3, fiber, good fats and yumminess all at once. Its the only thing that I've eaten for breakfast lately that keeps me from getting hungry before 11 am.

It is completely impossible to get out of a bowl without a good scrubbing. The dishwasher can't handle it. It also looks a little gross. Sean gets very upset when I leave "bowl disaster" in the sink. It's a pretty big joke around here. Here's how to have your very own bowl disaster!:

Start with a bowl.


Add some chocolate chips. The amount added depends on how bad of a mood you are in.


Add a lot of oatmeal (Old-fashioned, not instant. Steel cut is probably better, but who has that?)


Add a couple spoonfuls of flax seed. This is the secret weapon.


Add a big ol' scoop of peanut butter. The natural kind with just peanuts and salt. None of that processed partially hydrogenated crap.


Microwave for 30 seconds. Stir everything together. Eat it. Yummy.


Anyway, here are some pictures of mountains from my trip to Oregon last weekend. It was sunny and in the 60º's and beautiful! The pointy mountain is Mt. Hood. The roundish mountain is Mt. St. Helens.



Oh yeah, I've been knitting, too. The airplane ride helped with this a lot. Here are some socks! I keep getting messed up on the pattern and having to reknit parts of them. This means that there are some places with loose stitches, but I think it will be ok. It seems like I still have a million miles left to knit till I get to the toes. At least the foot part is half stockinette. Then again, the pattern was way easier to follow on the leg. It's all weird for the foot. Ah well. I am excited to have some knit socks that I love! Even if I sort of hate them.

Spinning wheel

I am going to get a spinning wheel. It's going to be a birthday present, because el husband is building himself a computer, and the only reasonable way to make an unjustifiably large expense go away is to create another one. My birthday's not for another month and a half, but this winter is making me more and more miserable by the hour and looking for a spinning wheel is making me happy.

I am trying to decide between the Original Lendrum and the Louet Victoria. Apparently I have to choose between single and double treadle.

Now, I personally know the three people who read this blog and I have never heard any of them mention anything about spinning, so I am not actually expecting any feedback. However, I have never used a spinning wheel before, so if anyone reading this is one of the creepy people who always seems to read blogs without ever leaving comments or anything (I am this person for lots of blogs...) and knows a lot about spinning wheels, this is the time to speak up.

Yes, I realize that Fae Ridge Farms has spinning classes and wheels and stuff, but by the time I have both the courage to call and the time to drive over there to take a class, it will be a very long time from now and I could have figured it out on my own by then.

Fun with Etsy

Now THIS is what all shopping should be like.