midgeling: life in a shoe.

Drops Jacket in Fabel. I used Stahl Baby Merino that I bought from Elann. I wove in the ends, but I need buttons. I also need to make something like a hat or booties or leg warmers or something to go with it.

So I am still around. Not blogging or reading blogs much at all. I will try to catch up with people later. I am just finding that right now I need a break. I don't know why. I just do. Same funk as before? Maybe. I still can't figure it out.

I do wish everyone well. (If anyone still read this at all anymore. I don't blame you if you don't.)

Posted by midgeling at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

These are my Licorice Stick socks! I am knitting them in Araucania Ranco sock yarn that I bought on sale from The Naked Sheep. I love this sock yarn! The colors are so pretty, and the yarn feels nice, too.

And we have Nathan's Christmas 2008 socks that I have been knitting since the end of June. Yeah, I am a wee bit behind. It's the Escalator Sock pattern from Penguin Purls.

I guess I'll get back into this knitting and blogging thing again. Life seems to be easing its stranglehold on me these days. I hope it continues to improve, because I am finally starting to feel human again. Heck, I am finally starting to feel again. And that right there is progress.

Posted by midgeling at 11:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I love the Issaquah Brewhouse. The Murg took me out for a beer. Well, two, actually. The second was an especially butt-kicking beer. Yum.

Posted by midgeling at 07:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's Noro Kureyon, color 91. I only have 10-11 balls of it, and I am thinking of making the Bobby's Garden Blanket. So for a lap throw, I would need many more balls of Kureyon. Many that I do not have. I don't even think that color is made anymore. So I was thinking of finding another Kureyon colorway to add to the mix, then bring it all together with a black center hexagon and black borders.

But it's not like I will be starting anytime soon, since Sock Madness is starting Thursday. Yikes. I think this is my 3rd year in a row. What was I thinking?

Posted by midgeling at 06:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Today's photo is of my "I Mog Di" sock from the first Wollmeise sock club shipment. I had put it down for a bit because I was having problems concentrating, and I really hated the "knit and rip" process I was following. It's going great now and I am having a lot of fun with few stupid knitter mistakes.

Posted by midgeling at 01:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today's daily photo is brought to you by my messy desk, and Nathan's finally finished Birthday socks! They are done in Lisa Souza's sock yarn in Mars Quake.

Well, I am glad I finally finished these! I have been working on them since July, and his birthday I was knitting these for was June 24th. Not to mention I still haven't started knitting his Christmas 2008 socks. I am a little behind, huh?

I wanted to take a photo of them on his feet, but he is sound asleep. It is 10:30 and he is tired. I'll let him sleep.

Posted by midgeling at 10:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I almost forgot to post this photo to Ravelry for the Grace Lace Beret that I made for my mom for Christmas. So here it is. It only took me 1 day and was very easy. I loved the way it came out (except for the 2 little mistakes I didn't notice until I cast off).

I used Bernat Muskoa yarn in teal. I used 3.5 and 4.5 mm needles. I think I might make one for myself next.

Posted by midgeling at 12:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I finally finished it! My One Row Scarf is a finished object at last. I just knit until I ran out of yarn, and it ended up being 7 feet long. For some reason it never occurred to me to stop before I was out of yarn and make a pair of mitts or something. It doesn't matter. I actually kind of like it long. I an wrap it around my neck a couple of times and still have the ends long enough. For some reason I have a weird (almost) fear of too-short scarves. I would much rather have them too long than too short.

I just love the zigzag that the colors do. Love it!

Posted by midgeling at 10:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oh, how I love garter stitch. And wool. And wool with mohair.

Harley picked this jacket out when she was about 4 or 5. She chose the pattern and the yarn. And lucky her - Kassie and Lexa will get to wear it. The colors are perfect for Lexa. She has already claimed it.

Posted by midgeling at 10:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Angelina at Zen String does indeed create fiber euphoria for me as she claims. I love her colors. I love the base yarns! Today's mail made me squeal with joy. I already loved Lotus Toes (SW Merino). I love Bambewe (SW Merino+Bamboo). And now, in today's club shipment, I got a skein of Siren! It's SW Merino and Seacell.

I have been sad since this week I am piteously low on cash until Friday's paycheck rolls in. Pennypinching hasn't been all that fun. Today was a super nice surprise.

Siren - sport, colorway Morgan
Lotus Toes - fingering, colorway Alice
Bambewe - fingering, colorway Fir.

Posted by midgeling at 10:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SNOW!!!

School was canceled yesterday in anticipation of a snowstorm. We didn't get one. This morning we woke to a metric buttload of snow that fell all day. Nani barked at the sky off and on while she was out, telling the clouds to knock it off. She didn't understand snow. She didn't like to poop in it, because she preferred to poop on my bedroom floor instead, even though she had just been outside for a potty break.

I had been lusting after the pattern for the Ariosa Cowl by Pam Allen. I kept staring at it, thinking I couldn't possibly pay a whole $5 for that pattern. It was just brioche stitch knitted flat, then add a cable twist and continue in the round. I could figure it out, right? Well, I finally quit thinking about it and just knit it this afternoon.

It wasn't as difficult to figure out as I thought it would be. I think mine came out a wee bit larger around than I would have liked, and wished I could have made a wee bit longer than it ended up. But at least I will remember that for next time. Just cast on less than 56 sts on my next try.

See? It's not so bad. The yarn was on sale and the pattern didn't cost me anything but the time it took me to work it out in my head. Oh, and many thanks to the Brioche Stitch website.

And school is cancelled again tomorrow...

Posted by midgeling at 08:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I started a pair of Cabled Convertible Mittens the other day. I finished the first, and am part way up the hand on the second. For these, i am using Rowan Cashsoft DK in a sort of rosy-tinted beige color that they call Savannah. Normally I am not a big beige fan, but this color has a bit more depth to it, and the softness is incredible.

And here is a close up of the cabling, since I can't take a decent photo of anything tonight.

The husband is off to CA again for another week. It's his last round of training for Juniper network stuff. He doesn't sound too thrilled, since it isn't exactly for holiday. At least the hotel he stays in is very nice. I finally got the kids to sleep and it is quiet here. I think I like it!

I can't believe I made it through NaBloPoMo without missing a day. I've not exactly been the most interesting person this whole time, but I made it. It was a nice challenge for me. I am behind on reading my favorite bloggers, so hopefully if I can keep the kids under control this next week, I can take some time to read and knit at the computer. Wish me luck...

Posted by midgeling at 09:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

These days, I am all about the last minute blog post.

I had Kassie's parent conference today, and both her teachers told me how wonderful and sweet and smart she is. She's way ahead of schedule as far as her development and achievement goes, which isn't surprising. She also managed to yank out her tooth today. It her left front on top, and left a rather gross, bloody gaping hole.

You know how when you are knitting something and from the very beginning you think your project is coming out a bit small and tight? Like maybe your needle is too small? And you try it on a few times as you go, thinking maybe it will somehow magically loosen up after you knit a bit farther? Well, before you get 2/3 of the way through the item, just rip it out and start again with a bigger needle. Listen to your gut. Because just maybe, even though you grabbed a needle from the 3mm section of your Circular Solution holder, you might have put the wrong size in that slot earlier. Just maybe.

Posted by midgeling at 11:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I don't think I will be succumbing to the Christmas Knitting Madness again like I did last year. I did start 2 new projects this week, and if I am lucky. I will have several people to knit for. But I don't think I will be as maniacal as I was last year.

The scarf is growing, and I still wonder if I will be able to part with it next month. I just love how the red is zig zagging down the length, adn the colors are sitting so well next to each other and not looking like Technicolor cat vomit.

The mohair rectangle thingy is coming along nicely, and I learned that frogging a couple of rows of loopy mohair is much easier than regular mohair yarn for some reason. I would never have imagined that to be the case in a million years. I would have thought it would be worse with all the baby loops catching on each other. But no, it slid out quite nicely. And I only frogged once when I realized that the pattern I was trying to knit was a waste of time and effort. It actually made knitting more difficult because I had to try to keep track of knits and purls, and I was dropping stitches far too often. Garter stitch is my friend with this project.

The little brown blurb? Those will be mittens. I am hoping they don't turn out too boring looking when I am done. I am going for "classic" and not frumpy. If they turn out frumpy, I will have to knit them again in a happier color and keep the frumpy ones as backups for me. My hands are always freezing in the mornings when I am walking the girls to school.

Nani is doing well. At least she is still growing and healthy. I think I need to kill her tonight. Okay, well maybe not kill her, but she has made me VERY angry today. We were gone for about 4 hours today due to church and Costco. Within 5 minutes of letting her back in when we got home, she peed in HK's bathroom and pooped on my bedroom floor. Because she really couldn't have done that when she was outside for 4 hours, right? Or maybe she was angry with us for daring to leave her alone for a few hours and not take her with us. The mongrel has made me most unhappy with her.

And after ranting tonight for a few minutes about how I am fed up with nothing ever working right, I ordered myself a new keyboard and mouse. It sucks that it won't ship until Dec 10, but I suppose I will live until then.

Okay, it's time for me to get myself and these snotlings into bed. I hope everyone has had a great weekend.

Posted by midgeling at 09:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The scarf is growing slowly. I'm still sick as can be, but in the few waking moments I have, I try to do a few rows of the scarf. I am really loving how the colors zig zag across the scarf. I am going to have a hard time giving this scarf up, if I can even manage to part with it at Christmas at all.

The new dishwasher arrived today. The Hubby is installing it right now. Well, really he is at the hardware store getting a coupe of thing to finish installing it. But it will be done and dishes won't be as much of a pain as they have been for the last several months.

Oh, why have we been without a dishwasher for months? You'd have to ask that guy I married. I suspect it is because he doesn't ever wash dishes, so therefore, it was a low priority. Though he may have a different answer if you ask him yourself.

Okay, more cold meds and tea are in order for me now. I can't wait for bedtime. As long as I am asleep, I don't feel miserable.

Posted by midgeling at 08:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been sick and asleep all day. Sinus infection, I think. But I've been working on my scarf. I was thinking I would give it as a Christmas gift, but I am liking it so much, I might keep it for myself, lol.

Okay, I have to go back to bed now. Because 18 hours of sleep apparently isn't enough.

Posted by midgeling at 05:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I started a scarf yesterday. It's mystery yarn. I can't remember at all where I bought it from. I know I bought it online a few years ago, and I think it might be superwash. The pattern is the One Row Scarf from the Yarn Harlot.

I have no idea if I will keep it for me or give it as a Christmas gift. I have been meaning to knit myself a scarf. I have knit a few so far, but Kassie or Lexa always end up claiming it and taking it away.

I slept most of today. I couldn't stay warm and I couldn't stay awake. So I cuddled with Lexa and we took a nap. The Hubby got paged at like 8 this morning and ended up going in to work at about 9:30. He didn't get home until almost 8 pm. Today just seems to be off for everyone. Lexa took a seriously long nap.

And I am still a wee bit headachy, so I am going to head off to bed now. Goodnight!

Posted by midgeling at 10:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Let's start with knitting. I started my I Mog Di socks from my Wollmeise club shipment. They are coming along nicely, when I get the chance to actually work on them. You have to pay attention to the pattern, but it goes faster than I thought it would.

Oooh! I got a great pair of Via Spiga pumps for super cheap on Saturday. The retail was $225.00. I got them for $23.99. I love them!!

And in other shopping news, I spent a birthday check on some earrings made by my Plurk- buddy Opal. Aren't they lovely? Go buy stuff from her! She's got great jewelry and stitch markers and handspun.

And lastly, I got a bird feeder for my birthday from Anne and Doug. I had been wanting one for some time. I put it on the hook on the deck that I can see from my desk while I work. The jays are hard to get photos of, because they spook much easier than the sparrows and finches.

Well, I hope everyone is having a great week. Mine isn't too bad, though I have been working way too much.

Posted by midgeling at 09:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I like my Monkey Socks. I finally finished them. I finished them on Saturday. That was the same day we found out that Lexa's heart murmur wasn't a problem and didn't need further medical attention. That was a huge relief.

Things here at Shoe Central are still chaotic, as usual. Lexa now has a fever and aches. HK is still being lazy and won't keep up on her chores (which she has very few of). Nani is not quite housebroken. Work has me worn out and burnt out still. I am hanging in. At least I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. But really, it's the same old stuff.

Well, it's bed time for me. I am going to try to get back to my regularly scheduled, not so hectic life. I hope everyone has a good week!

Posted by midgeling at 09:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

PURPLE!!!

Here we have the toe up Monkey Sock:

And here we have a blackberry pie! We picked berries in the church parking lot after service. Some people thought we were nuts, other people thought we were brilliant. I just wanted pie.

I did the crust, Chace was in charge of the filling. I think my mom's crust is better, but Mr Midgeling says I just need more practice.

I think purple is a great color.

Today's color was brought to you by midgeling.

Posted by midgeling at 09:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Remember that purple STR that Weebug traded me for stash yarn? You know, cause I wouldn't stop fondling it? Well, I finally started a new pair of socks with it. I am going to do Monkey Socks, toe up. With a gusset. Because I can.

What better way to end the month of August?

Posted by midgeling at 10:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

when you have a good friend? She sees you drooling over (and molesting) the yarn she is knitting with, then trades it to you for something in your stash that isn't nearly as nice.

Thanks, Marti. I am still petting it.

She also took a photo of my beloved Purse Spider. He lives in the small pockets of my purse. When I change purses, I grab him when I grab my wallet and other stuff. He prefers my red purse, though.

Marti decided that he went nicely with Mr Midgeling's current Birthday Sock in progress.

Posted by midgeling at 04:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I finally started on Mr Midgeling's birthday socks for this year. Why finally? Because his birthday was on June 24th. Every Christmas and birthday I ask him what he wants. He always says "nothing". A couple of years ago he started saying "Hand knit socks." Finally - a real answer.

I am using Lisa Souza's fingering weight sock yarn in Mars Quake. The pattern is based on some sock pattern I saw on the internet some time ago. I am doing it over 88 stitches for his big, fat feet, toe up, using Wendy Johnson's method used in the Toe-up Slipstitch Heel socks. Mr Midge has such fat feet and ankles that there is no way short row heels would ever work for him.

So I am going to head to bed with my sock, iPod, inhalers, cough drops and Chloraseptic spray. Good night!

Posted by midgeling at 09:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have to post this. I am sick of the clickety-click of rescheduling exams for work.

Almost done with my Mom's socks. They were supposed to be mine, with my Zen String sock club yarn, but I made them too tight. I know, they look like chicken leg socks, but they fit her fine. Hopefully I will get them finished tonight so I can start on Mr Midgeling's birthday socks.

Posted by midgeling at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I finally made it to Web*sters here in Ashland. I bought some vacation fiber Heathery gray-blue and some heathery brighter blue), and two skeins of KPPPM in the perfect banana colorway so that I can make some Nanners Socks. I wanted to shop more, but Mr Midgeling made me hold back. So I didn't buy the hand cards I wanted. He promised he would make me some as soon as we finish moving completely out of the old house and into the new.

Later tonight we will be dining at Chateaulin with Grandma A. I am really looking forward to the French onion soup. Aunt Kelly says it is super delicious!

Tomorrow we leave for Vancouver, WA to spend the holiday weekend with my parents, sister and brothers. It will be fun! I really don't want to go back home and have my vacation be over. I am having way too much fun.

Posted by midgeling at 04:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Two sleeves down. 10 rows into left front. Wedding is on the 28th. Don't know if I will make it, lol. At least I will have a lot of car knitting time on the way to CA. Too bad Baby won't be there to assist with yarn wrangling.

Posted by midgeling at 01:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I meant to post this back on May 22. Obviously, I didin't get to it. Life has been insane with trying to finish up the move, get kids registered at the proper schools for next year and people getting sick.

I am going to be going to a cousin's wedding on June 28th, and I need something decent to wear. So I am knitting the Sapphire Wrap by Melissa Wehrle.

So I happened to do my shopping while the 2008 LYS Tour was going on. While at Renaissance Yarns I spent more than $25, so I got the lovely free tote bag you see in the photo. I am doing the pattern in the same color, but not the same yarn. The pattern yarn used is cashmere, which just isn't in my budget. I am using Louet MerLin (merino/linen), which isn't cheap either, but it isn't as much as cashmere.

I have one sleeve plus most of the second sleeve completed so far. I sure hope I will get it done in time. I am also hoping that the computer gets brought over to the new house soon. Until then, I still have to come over here to the old house to work and use the computer. Blech.

I hope everyone has a great weekend, and I hope to catch up with you all soon.

Posted by midgeling at 05:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Note: Poor photo taken on my phone since I still haven't replaced my card reader and I can't for the life of me find the stuff to hook my camera directly into my PC.

So since Weebug mentioned my sock yarn scrap blanket thingy, I figured I'd better post a photo of it.

I started it a couple of years ago and have been slowly adding to it as I knit socks and have a bit leftover. There's a couple of socks not represented here - those were made for Mr Midgeling and his monstrous feet, so I had no yarn leftovers to use. One pair I made him had toes from the yarn in that orange square there since I ran out of his yarn. It is more or less chronological, but not completely, since I have been known to lose my scraps and find them again in odd places months later.

It's not really a true knit-along, since I am famous for not being a put-together person. But you can have the recipe I used here:

Mitered Square Scrap Sock Yarn Blankie (MSSSYB - pronounced "Misseeb"?)

Square size: roughly 4" when I am not on painkillers for my back, lol.
Needle size: 2.0 mm or size to get gauge. If you want. I mean, it's a scrap blanket. It only has to look the way you want it. Gauge really isn't critical here.

First square:
Cast on 60 sts.
First row: Slip first stitch PW, Knit 27 sts, SSK, K2tog, Knit 28 sts.
Next Row: Slip first stitch PW, knit across.
Next Row: Slip first stitch PW, Knit 26 sts, SSK, K2tog, Knit 27 sts.
Next Row: Slip first stitch PW, knit across.
Continue on like this until you have 2 sts, then K2tog.and bind off.

Second Square:
Cast on 30 sts, pick up and knit 30 sts along the Right (Public) Side of the first square.
Next Row: Slip first stitch PW, knit across.
First row: Slip first stitch PW, Knit 27 sts, SSK, K2tog, Knit 28 sts.
Next Row: Slip first stitch PW, knit across.
Next Row: Slip first stitch PW, Knit 26 sts, SSK, K2tog, Knit 27 sts.
Next Row: Slip first stitch PW, knit across.
Continue on like this until you have 2 sts, then K2tog and bind off.

Keep adding squares in this manner until your blankie is Big Enough. If you are like me and oddly particular, you may wish to pay attention to what direction your miters are facing as you join the squares. If not, just go for it and let them end up facing whatever random direction you like.

Posted by midgeling at 12:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Okay, so I wasn't fast enough to make the second round in Sock Madness 2008. I knit and finished my first sock late Friday night. I was so tired that I forgot where I put it, so a photo will have to come later.

I was so knit out by then that I decided to finish up some spinning and free up my favorite spindle.

It's from a Spritely Goods merino/firestar handblended batt in the Larkspur colorway. It's about 135 yards of roughly sport weight yarn. It will likely end up as a lace scarf of some sort. I tried to get it all in one hank, but my spindle refused to take any more than the 135 yards. The yarn kept breaking under the weight of the full spindle. So I Andean plied the remainder of the 2 chunks of singles into a couple of mini skeins. I'll probably end up weaving those into some coasters or something.

Lace week was sort of stressful. There were good parts and bad. Friday evening I felt like a totally crappy, horrible mother. I couldn't Make it to Marti's house Friday because Chace had his orchestra concert at 7:00. Guess what we found out? It was on Thursday. We missed it. He started to cry really quietly in the car. Then I started to cry and apologize all over the place. It was a big concert with 4 schools combined into one giant orchestra. I used to play violin, so I remember how big of a deal these things are. And HK didn't go to her boyfriend's karate competition because of the concert. And Mr Midgeling came home from work early, too.

Yeah, I suck.

Um, but on the bright side, the house we wanted is 95% ours. We sent in the paperwork accepting the seller's counter offer. Now we just wait on the inspection and by the end of the month, we will be the proud owners of a new (to us) 5 bedroom home down the street from the #1 rated high school in the state. According to Newsweek (I think it's them) it is ranked #37 in the country.

So it's not all bad. Losing at Sock Madness and orchestra. Getting the house we wanted. It's been a bit bumpy, but I'd say things are looking up.

Posted by midgeling at 06:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I've been under it, around it and even in the gift shop. But on Wednesday, I finally went to the top of the Space Needle. Mr Midgeling emailed me and told me to pick him up from work so we could go hang out for the evening.

Our visit was at sunset, and during some freaky snowy weather. Seattle can't seem to decide if it is Spring or Winter. The last four days or so have been spent at the mercy of a seriously bipolar Mother Nature. In the morning I would go out to the car and drive kids to school while admiring the sun peeking out from behind the clouds and showing off patches of blue sky. The drive to the doc a few hours later had me bundling up against sleet and blowing snow. Weird.

But I got to experience snow at about 500 feet above Seattle:

And Mr Midgeling even took photos of me:

And I took photos of him:

That's not the most flattering photo of me, but hey. I don't seem to take many flattering photos these days, lol. And guess what? I even got to knit up there while we had coffee and watched the snow collect in the outer windowsills.

It was a nice surprise.

Posted by midgeling at 09:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I made Round One of Sock Madness. I was #26 out of 40 in my division. I didn't get done as fast as I had hoped since we had company over the weekend and I ended up getting sick. And when you are sick, you sleep a lot more than you knit.

The stomach flu really sucked, btw. I lost 2 lbs more as a result, lol. I am feeling much better today. It's been rough trying to catch up with work, but I am still plugging along.

I am brain dead and boring at the moment, so I think I am going to end my lunch break and finish up my work.

Posted by midgeling at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Quick post. Stomach issues. Feel icky. Tired of camping in bathroom. Might call in sick tomorrow. Well, probably will. Parents visited this weekend. They are moving to Vancouver, WA next month. We are thrilled. Sock Madness 2. Tennessee Twisted Knitters. 14 people done so far. Sick Knitting sucks. Back hurts. Need ice pack. Goodnight.

Posted by midgeling at 07:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's yet another WIP. It is That Little Scarf by Anne Hanson. Normally, I hate buying scarf patterns. Aren't scarves just insanely long gauge swatches? Why should I pay $5 for that? But I hadn't seen the stitch pattern before and it intrigued me. I found myself looking at it for days. So I bought it. And I am glad I did.

It's not an easy pattern where all the wrong side rows are purled across. And I am normally a devoted chart knitter. I usually skip right over written out directions. But for some reason, these charts had me confuzzled at first. You read them from the left on right side rows, and from the right on wrong side rows. After 2 pattern repeats of me comparing what I was knitting to the chart, the light finally came on and I got it. Duh.

The yarn is Zen String Bambewe in Moonshadow. Bambewe is Bamboo/merino/nylon. It's really soft and sort of shiny in the light. The color is a really pretty grayish blue. In darker lighting, it looks mostly gray, but in the light you can see more of the blue hues. And the coolest thing happened:

The whole scarf is knitting up with one half shading lighter than the other. It's a Happy Little Accident that I am really liking. Hopefully it will stay like that through the rest of the scarf. It's not so spectacular unblocked, but it will look. better when I am done.

*sigh* Tonight I have to drive HK the 11 miles to church for Youth Group. I am glad she likes it so much and I am WAY glad we found such a great church after our old one imploded upon itself last year. Once we move in (hopefully) a few months, The Husband will likely complain to me about the distance even more. He will just have to find a way to cope.

Posted by midgeling at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Well, almost. It's the Big Basin sock from the Six Sox Knitalong. The yarn is Dream In Color Smooshy in the Wisterious colorway. It makes my foot look like a hydrangea. Is started it Saturday afternoon while I was watching the kids swim.

It's coming along nicely so far, but I have no idea if it will end up fitting me. (Gauge? who needs to check gauge?) If it is too small, Mom gets it. If it is too big, my sister Laura gets it. (BTW, Laura and Michael are swiftly falling in love and all that mooshy stuff, so all is proceeding well with my Valentine's story.) If it fits, then I get to keep it until either HK or Laura decide to steal them and force their fat feet into them anyway. It's happened before.

Wish me luck.

Posted by midgeling at 09:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Kassie: "Hey Mom! Doesn't this look like a giant ball of cat vomit?"

And just in case you were wondering, Lexa isn't holding a giant ball of cat vomit. She is holding an 8 oz ball of Natural Black roving that I got from Beaverslide for $15.00. Fifteen dollars. It is soft and smells nice and is very pettable. Kassie is holding my 4 skeins of Mallard colored 90% Wool, 10% Kid Mohair yarn that I bought for Wicked. It is about 960 yards and I really need like 1000 yards to knit Wicked. But I figured that I would knit what I could and then decide between 3/4 sleeves or the pocket. Or if I am off by that much, I just may end up with a 3/4 sleeve sweater with no pocket, lol. Hopefully, since I have unnaturally short arms, I will have enough for the long sleeve sweater with a pocket.

Why Beaverslide? I have never heard anything but good feedback on Beaverslide yarn. I have been wanting to order from them for a year or so now, and I finally got the good excuse to order some. I got a raise, so this was the perfect reason to celebrate! I also ordered a full set of color cards. They are gorgeous. The yarn is soft, without feeling like it has had all the character and personality processed out of it. And the colors are real and natural, and not like something mass produced by Willy Wonka. I am happy.

Posted by midgeling at 08:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I finished my January Girl socks from the Zen String Sock Club. It was knit with Zen String Harmony DK (merino/tencel). The pattern was very nicely written and it turned out lovely. Angelina dyes up some truly wonderful yarn. I can't speak highly enough about her.

Detail of lace pattern.

It took my a lot longer to finish than I would have liked, but with my back so messed up, my left hand is still partially numb, and I still have problems with pain in my left arm. So I could only knit about 15 minutes at a time for most of the sock, and the last few days I was able to knit for over a half hour at a time with no real probems. I have been seeing a chiropractor and my regular doctor for a month now. This week I went from 3 visits to two visits per week to the chiro. I'd say the pain is about 70% better, but unfortunately the numbness hasn't gone yet. I am still spending a lot of quality time with my ice packs these days, lol.

I haven't been online as much as I like lately. I am behing on reading my favorite blogs since I don't really like to be sitting in my desk chair any more than I really have to. But since things are getting better, I think I will probably be getting back to normal. Oh, yeah. My doc is making me get an EMG to see exactly how much nerve blockage I have got going on. One of the things that drives me nuts is that my typing sucks even worse now. With my left hand numb, it types slower than the right. So I am constantly misspelling things, with all the letters typed by my right hand in the beginning of the word and the left handed letters showing up toward the end. My brain sends the signals like normal, but my left hand executes things much more slowly, and with the numbness, it isn't always apparent that my left hand is lagging behind. It drives me nuts. But things are getting better!

Posted by midgeling at 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The 3rd Mohican Hat in the color Iris. More Christmas Knitting. I finally passed the first set of decreases. After this point, it goes pretty quickly.

Posted by midgeling at 09:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My favorite socks. KPPPM. I wear them several days each week, lovingly hand washing and hanging them to dry. Well, sometimes when they are still damp, I use the hair dryer to speed things up. The stupid hard, disintegrating wood floors in this house are really hard on socks. I need to learn to darn socks now. I have extra scrap yarn.

I got my new phone. I love it. But it had a slight software malfunction and nuked my entire address book. From the flash card. I had no backup since The Beast is still dead, and there is no ETA on it's resurrection. I miss my poor computer. He was good to me.

My week has sort of sucked again. . My back is messed up, so I sleep like crap. It's a freakish pinched nerve thingy. It hurts from my neck, down between my shoulder blades and into my left arm. I had to drop Nathan off at work this morning after I dropped HK off because we both slept through both his alarms. I was a half hour late picking HK up from school on Monday cause I kept getting stopped by people about stuff at work, then got stuck behind some clueless people that took forever in the parking garage.

Oh, Kass and Chace were turned away from the bus on Monday because Chace isn't allowed to take his cello on the bus anymore. The Transportation dept said they have "airline-like restrictions" for their buses. Um, so why aren't they turning away all the kids bringing juice boxes in their lunches? They are carrying on more than 2 oz of liquid. Anyway, since I had the car, both kids stayed home from school and played on the trampoline and played Wii. Lucky them. So Chace won't be bringing his cello on Mondays, so they better either let him use a school instrument or else not get on his case when he shows up empty-handed. I hate this school district. I can't wait till we move.

I am a bit cranky, but I am convinced that things will get better. I stopped the inhalers a couple of weeks ago and I think my immune system is improving. I am still congested, but not outright sick anymore. Yippee!

Posted by midgeling at 01:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

My phone did not arrive. It is currently on a delivery truck somewhere. So at least it should be here soon.

Enter the Black Dog: The new year isn't going quite as well as I had hoped so far. Like yesterday, for example. I arrived back home after dropping HK off at school to find that I had to turn off 9 lights that people failed to turn off before leaving. NINE. From the upstairs attic room (my bedroom) to the basement. Then came work. And it wouldn't stop. I am still dealing with asthma and congestion issues, but in an effort to save my crappy immune system, I have gone off my asthma inhalers. I mean, I have had some virus or another since the end of September. I get a 2-3 day break in there on occasion, but I am SICK of being sick! Oh, and I am still not done with all my Christmas knitting.

And today I slept through my alarm for 2 hours. I let HK stay home from school because I had to drive Mr Midgeling to work. His motorcycle had a flat tire and he was going to be late for a meeting with Bob-the-New-Boss-of-First-Impressions. I am not impressed by that man (Bob, not the mister. But actually, I haven't been to impressed with the mister lately either, lol!). He is a dolt. So the middle 2 kids have late start school at 10:30 on Fridays. But they were 10 minutes late anyway.

I am having insomnia issues. I frequently get to greet 3 am in a completely conscious state. I have been feeling restless and irritable. My concentration and motivation is shot. If I had my choice, I would stay up all night knitting and listening to my iPod and sleep all day. I am having a hard time resisting the urge to buy stuff. I seriously want to renew a couple of sock clubs, but I can't. I have to save that money for the new house that will hopefully be entering our lives in the next 6 months or so.

My former boss still manages to be like wet sand in my underwear, even though I don't report to him anymore. Well, I suppose he is like wet sand because I don't report to him anymore. I don't even want to work anymore because my place of employment is dysfunctional (as is everywhere) and preally pretty hostile. I report to a new woman now, so hopfully that will go well. I have known her for years, though I didn't work with her much, but I have never had issues or anything negative go on with her.

My friend Chris asked me today what I have been doing to try to cope with these feelings and problems I have had lately. Here's an excerpt from our conversation:

Chris says (11:39 AM):so what have you tried to do differently to break the funk?
midgeling says (11:40 AM):
um, leaving my purse in the car so I cant shop online, lol
midgeling says (11:40 AM):
And I upped my meds by a half a pill
midgeling says (11:41 AM):
trying to be positive. think positive and plan things out. more structure makes for less opportunity to start spinning out of control. it's hard sometimes. sometimes I just want to sleep and quit trying to be level-headed
midgeling says (11:41 AM):but i know I cant

So there. I know it will get better. It just takes time and effort. But it is still a struggle some days. But on the more positive side:

More Christmas knitting. I'm on the second sock. It's plain rib, but I need to get stuff done fast. I will make it up to teh recipient by making another fancier pair when I get a moment.

Posted by midgeling at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I am in love with Brown Sheep's new variegated colors. They are tonal and subtle. I don't know why, but I really like tone on tone colorways these days. The red is called "Cranberry Swirl" and the green is "Forest Shadows". I am wortking on a Mohican Hat in the Cranberry Swirl right now - that's the bit of ribbing you see there. I must knit myself a sweater in one of those colors very soon.

One more of the Critter Scarves is finished. We have a chocolate covered Lexa as a model. I am done with the knitting for my BIL's family now. I am hoping that my first newly started project of 2008 will be something that I knit for myself.

Oh, and here's a simple square done on my 6x6 Weavette. It's done with Kureyon. I wouldn't recommend it for Weavettes unless you don't object to fussing with it a lot - the single ply breaks too easily. I found that if you keep most of the working yarn doubled as much as possible, that helps. But then you are adjusting the yarn after pretty much every row.

I spent much of the day helping Chace clean his room. It was so bad that it was spilling into the hallway. I even got rid of old books that he has outgrown. I have about 4 bags ready for Goodwilll. Chace discovered that he probably has a couple thousand dollars worth of Legos all over his room. I discovered that I will never buy the kids feather pillows or Moon Sand ever again.

I'm still not ready for Christmas. Not by a longshot. Oh yeah. And one of the darling kitties pooped on a blanket in the basement. Neither of those buggers is owning up to it.

Posted by midgeling at 11:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

These are my beloved kitties. Baby is the big boy at the top. Stella aka Fatty aka Fat Cat is the pretty little thing below Baby. She has the most adorable fat rear end that gives her the cutest waddle when she walks. We have a lot in common, except that her waddle is much cuter than mine. I really missed the most adorable shot of Baby licking the top of Stella's head, and her laying there with her eyes closed enjoying every minute of it. They refused to cooperate and repeat the scene for me.

And here is Harley creatively modeling another Christmas gift hat. Um, I don't really have much else to say about it. Harley pretty much leaves me at a loss for words.

Okay, I finished the hat several days ago, but I am only just posting it now. Why? Because Kassie brought home another virus. There were aches and congestion and fevers to go around. She gave it to her baby sister, who gave it to me. We all pretty much spent the weekend sleeping and taking over-the-counter drugs.

But a few minutes ago, I was listening to Knitters Uncensored on my iPod while knitting another Critter Scarf and watching Quilters TV on TiVo (yes, all 3 at the same time) and I realized that I was actually awake and had photos, so I may as well post them.

So there you have it. Another (not so) exciting day in my life. Oh, well there was the Starbucks Date earlier tonight. But that's another story to be told tomorrow.

Posted by midgeling at 10:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The lovely Kassie modeling the latest scarf FO while at Taekwondo.

I finished another Christmas gift! This is a variation on the Critter Scarf for one of my nieces. So far I have finished Christmas knitting for 2 nephews, 2 nieces (1 niece and 1 nephew to go), one BIL, FIL, MIL and sister. I swear, my hands and fingers are going to fall off soon.

And yes, I am still sick. I had to take a nap today just so I could make it through the rest of the running around I had to do today. I don't know how much longer it's going to linger, but I am out of Sudafed. I need to go to the store for more, but I am just too pooped. But on the bright side, I am a bit less congested than I was a few days ago.

Posted by midgeling at 09:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here are the hats i finished!

Lexa is modeling this one. I am not exactly sure who is going to get this one. It's a 2x2 rib hat made from Noro Kureyon over 100 sts. It's really stretchy and fits not only Mr Midgeling, but little Lexa here as well.

And here we have Chace trying on his cousin's Mohican hat. I made this hat in Knitpicks Swish. I am saving the Morehouse Merino that the kit came with for an adult, since it is not superwash. I am substituting Swish for all the Morehouse Merino for my nieces and nephews since there are 6 kids in that family and I am sure that at some point something would end up getting thrown in the washer and felted.

I thought for sure this hat would take forever since I had to knit all those little spikes, but it was surprisingly quick! Now I just have a ton more presents to knit and get shipped off. And I haven't even sent out Christmas cards yet, lol. Oh, well. I suppose I will get to them sometime...

Posted by midgeling at 05:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So this is how WA ushered in the month of December. I celebrated by getting that stupid cold again. The snow was unfortunately short-lived, but we got plenty of rain the following few days. One high school was even closed because of some flooding.

I finished another pair of Lobster mitts. I had to rip out one of the mitts and reknit part of it. The pattern is correct, but some of the numbers are split among 2 lines, so I didn't see that numbers for the larger size were continued on the line below. *sigh* my fault for not reading carefully enough.

I have a couple of finished hats to post as well. Hopefully I will get to those tomorrow - the camera battery is busy charging tonight, so I can't get them all done now. Darn it, I am tired and in serious need of a shower. My weeks have been so busy with all the kid stuff! Hopefully things will get better soon.

Posted by midgeling at 09:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I made some Lobster Mitts! The large size used most of the skein supplied in the kit, but with enough leftovers (and then some) to make a crocheted string to attach the two mitts. They were really fast - I finished the pair in a day.

These are probably going to be for Lexa. The wool is hand wash only, and my SIL will doubtfully be willing to hand wash wool garments for 6 kids. So I bought some superwash from Knitpicks and will be knitting their Christmas gifts out of nothing but superwas wool, lol. Crazy me has decided to try to knit (almost) all the Christmas gifts this year.

I've had these finished since the weekend, but haven't managed to get a photo taken of them. My sinus infection is coming back. I am feeling poopy again. *sigh* My body can't seem to just mellow out and heal itself sufficiently. I need to drink more green tea. It may just be all in my head, but I swear it helps.

Posted by midgeling at 10:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yes, the colors are truly that blinding in person.

Posted by midgeling at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Here's is a hat I knit for a friend's baby for her first birthday. It's the Ann Norling Sweetheart Hat. You can't really see the pattern too well, but there are stockinette hearts on a purl background. It's a roll brim with a garter stitch top. I finished it in one night. I didn't want to just buy a gift, so I made sure I had something hand made tucked in the gift bags as well.

Layla's birthday party was today, and her parents went all out. They rented out a room at their local community center. Layla was adorable. She got to wear a tutu and eat all the cake she could stuff in her cute little face, lol. They had a ton of food and even hired a magician/facepainter to keep the kidlets happy. It was really a great party.

But Captain Fluffybutt was once again displeased that he was forced to model more knitwear. I think he would have been more cooperative had the hat not been bright pink with hearts. He'll get used to it. Maybe I should get one of my daughter's bears to model the girly stuff.

Posted by midgeling at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Captain Fluffybutt is a little irritated at me for forcing him to model. He is the perfect size, and I told him that he looked rather dashing in the hat.

He was fine with the hat, it was the booties that he objected to being photographed in.

See, he has this image to uphold. Stewie from Family Guy is his hero, and he kept telling me that Steweie would never be caught wearing rainbow baby booties.

But unlike Stewie, Captain Fluffybutt has a soft, cuddly, sweet side. He's only Emo Pirate Bear on the outside.

The booties and hat are for my latest nephew, John Joseph. He's baby #6, just arrived late last month. I don't know if my brother-in-law and sister-in-law are crazy, or just like having kids. Sister-in-law is a Good Catholic Girl, but all my other Catholic friends keep telling me that birth control is no longer forbidden. I don't think that memo ever got from the Vatican to the state of New Mexico, lol!

Posted by midgeling at 07:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Harley's Birthday Socks are finally done. They were done toe up in a a garter rib pattern (1 rnd K2P2, 2 rnds K) with 2x2 ribbed cuffs and shart row garter stitch heels and toes. I just love the fact that some patterns are so ingrained that to me, they consist of one sentence and not pages of text or charts.

Here's a close up:

For Harley's 14th birthday, she chose one of the family favorite restaurants, Shanghai Garden. We always order Hand Shaved Noodles with chicken, Strawberry Beef (kid's favorite) and Pepper Salted Squid (my favorite).

Afterward, we crossed the street to spend some time at Kinokuniya Bookstore in Uwajimaya Village. I love that bookstore. Since Uwajimaya is celebrating their anniversary, they are having a 10% off sale. So I had to get a book. HAD TO. This book refused to let me go. I suppose to describe it, you would say it is Barbara G. Walker meets Cookie A. I can't wait to start playing with some stitch patterns.

So from us, Harley got a cute top that she wanted, a pair of socks, and a concert ticket to see Chiodos at the Showbox this weekend with a friend. I can't believe I am now the mother of a 14 year old. It scares me. I am getting old. I don't feel too much more than 14 myself.

Posted by midgeling at 10:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here's my first Zigzag sock from the Vogue Knitting Ultimate Sock Book. I got the book for my birthday from, my sister. The yarn I am using is Schachenmayr nomotta Regia Tweed 6-ply / 6 fädig in a light gray color. I shortened the leg by one pattern repeat since I didn't have as much yarn as the pattern called for. I had about 3 yards leftover from my ball! I can't believe I made it.

The book is great - just beware of the heel turning for this pattern! After the second try, I realized that their directions for the heel turning were all screwed up, so I eyeballed it and got what worked for me. A newbie sock knitter would be really frustrated, so I hope this doesn't mess anyone up.

Hopefully, I'll start the second sock tomorrow.

Posted by midgeling at 05:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just a poorly taken photo to display today. Today was... not good. It started last night with transmission fluid accidently getting drained from my car and a mad search for the ATV-IV to replace it. Then today was windy, rainy, cold and icky. Normally, I like that kind of weather. But when doing car maintenance, it sucks.

Then add a 13 year old who is pissed at not being able to go to church tonight.

Good times...

Posted by midgeling at 08:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I finished them. He wore them to work yesterday! He even showed them off to his friends - one of which has a Knitting Wife. Of course Mr. midgeling had to rub it in Jason's face that they were hand knit just for him. Since he knows that Jason's Knitting Wife hasn't yet tried to knit socks. I suspect she has that perfectionist thing where she is afraid to produce things that aren't perfect on the first shot. But she is a wonderful knitter. Really - I have seen her FOs. Hopefully I will bring her to the Dark Side of socks - or maybe someone else will.

Since Mr. midgeling was so busy playing Warfcrack, I decided to use some girly props in this photo. So you see my new red purse that I got for my birthday, and the fleece blanket that Grandma gave me when we visited her this past July in CA.

I used all 462 yards of the Lime & Violet sock yarn, plus a wee bit of a second coordinating Lime & Violet color to finish up the toes. Mr. midgeling has big, F A T feet.

So I suppose I will consider these the first pair in my Socktoberfest celebration. Woot!

Posted by midgeling at 08:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay, so yesterday was good. Sorta. Started out rocky - new church, narrow minded people that don't think that if you wear black that you can already have an established relationship with God. You know, you must be "lost" or something. Eh, we have a few churches to try out. And just maybe my family can teach these conservative peoples that you can be different AND Christian.

After that, we went to Weebug's house. We hung out for the day while went all supergeek on them and tuned up their PC and recovered music files from the iPod that was orphaned by their previous PC. It was fun in a sick and twisted kind of way. I got some sock knitting done. Quite a bit, actually. See?

Those are Nathan's Never Ending Socks. Those are supposed to sorta replace his blue Birthday Socks that were too small. And by "sorta" I mean, he still wears the other ones even though they are too small, but I wanted him to have a pair that fit since they were a birthday present. So here I have knit these socks with Lime N Violet sock yarn in the Basement Dweller colorway. 462 yards will not be enugh to comfortably fit his size 11.5 EEEE feet. So it's a good thing I bought Cutters Are People Too, because that's what color the toes of his monstrous socks are going to be. They coordinate quite nicely.

It feels like I have been knitting them forever. But really, it's just been since the beginning of July. But I may finish them this week! Woot!

Oh, and so in return for my hours of sitting at her computer ignoring everyone while she fed my kids, Weebug graciously gave me a big hunk of pretty fibery love. It's Lisa Souza fiber in the Lime and Violet colorway, of course! Do I have awesome friends or what?

Posted by midgeling at 08:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

And here's the lovely Lexa showing off her best friend Buddy and my birthday present from Weebug. It is Knitting Lace Triangles by Evelyn Clark. (Evelyn is such a nice lady. I remember years ago she sat near me in Margaret Stove's lace knitting class that we took at the Bellevue Fire station.)

I love the book, and of course I want to abandon all that I am knitting and start a new lace shawl for myself.

Oooh, and I got a $100 bill from one of my grandmas. Weebug thinks I need to buy a new Bosworth spindle. She may be on to something!

Posted by midgeling at 01:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

These are my mom's birthday socks. They are beyond salvaging. So I knit the two stupid socks, then proceeded to wash the second one in the same manner as the first in order to get them the same damn color. Um, that didn't work. The color in the second sock washed out WAY more than the first. So I figured I would get my Wilton dyes out to overdye them a sort of purply color to even it out.

Okay, so picture socks soaking in some seriously hot water. Next picture me running the tub to get the water nice and piping hot. But it comes out of the faucet out nice and cold at first, right? And there is a washcloth in the bottom of the tub blocking the drain, so the cold is just sitting there. Then picture clumsy me slipping in a small puddle of water and dropping the piping hot first sock into the nice, cold tub water.

You could actually see the damn thing shrivel up. On first glance, the sock only looks slightly smaller than the second sock. But try to put it on and you will find an inelastic tube. In a markedly different color.

I hate these socks.

Posted by midgeling at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I finished my Southwestern Socks. I plan on giving them to my mom for her birthday - which was on the 15th. I hope they aren't too purple for her tastes. The yarn is Joslyn's Fiber Farm sock of the month club from years ago. It was either from 2003 or 2004. The freaky thing is that after washing, the color totally changed. I suspected as much since my fingers would turn pink every time I knit with the yarn. So after I did a good vinegar soak in hot water, I dried it and then knit the second sock for a little comparison.

Would you believe they are the same pattern and same yarn? Here's a detail photo:

Overall, I like how they turned out. I think I even like the more muted color sock better than the brighter sock.

Posted by midgeling at 02:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here's Harley modeling Brenda Zuk's Seaman's Cap. I made the medium size from some Brown Sheep yarn I had laying around. It was staring at me accusingly, as if I was wasting it's wooly goodness by letting it just lie on the floor next to my bedroom television. So I made it into a hat with a bit leftover for the ribbing of another hat.

Neglected yarn can be so moody sometimes. Sheesh.

Posted by midgeling at 07:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Yup. I have been spinning a bit again. This is 1 oz total (off and on the spindle) of a rose colored wool. I have one more ounce of this same fiber, plus 2 ounces of a darker rose colored wool that I bought in Ashland, OR at Web*sters. It's vacation fiber. I am liking it.

Then we have the socks. I will be ripping them out shortly. Too tight. Pretty, though. They are Wendyknits Southwestern Socks. I'll try again in a different yarn.

Sometime in the future I will post photos of our Saturday with the family at the Ballard Locks. That was fun. Unexpectedly fun in strange ways. The whole day was really nice. I got to spend time with my aunt and cousin that I don't see nearly enough.

Posted by midgeling at 05:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Today was a good Mail Day!!! My Zen String Sock Club shipment for July Came today. (Angelina was a little behind because of family illness last month.) It is Harmony Fingering (50/50 Merino/Tencel) in the Dragonfly colorway. It is just beautiful! The color does relaly look shimmery like a dragonfly.

And I realized that I never posted June's club shipment in my chaos of getting ready to leave for vacation. That was Lotus Toes (Superwash BFL) in the Lily colorway. *sigh* It's all so pretty...

And my Interweave Knits came also. Time for me to get myself some iced tea and start looking through my new magazine!

Posted by midgeling at 03:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I finished it. Please ignore the fat girl wearing the Chickami, just look at the garment, thankyouverymuch. It was easy, quick, and turned out nice. I used some Intermezzo cotton yarn that I bought from Elann many years ago. I think it cost me all of about $9 for the yarn.

On my body, lower necked items tend to be more flattering since I have ginormous boobies, but I knit it as written anyway. I might try to knit another and alter the neckline. But then again, maybe I should just lose 30 lbs and get a boob job. Hmmmm.....

Posted by midgeling at 05:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I started something for myself. It's the Chickami from Chicknits. I am using some Intermezzo cotton yarn i bought years ago from Elann.It's going pretty fast, but would have been faster if I had been paying attention and noticed that I was only doing the body shaping on one side and not both sides of the stinking cami. At least I only had to rip out a couple of inches.

Oh, and just like the Harlot said, you really need to treasure your non-knitting friends who understand what your knitting is to you. My friend Magy is one of those treasures. She is wonderful with my girls and really does understand me more than I thought she did. Friday, I was dropping my little girls off at her Playschool for a few hours. I ended up staying and talking with her because life was sort of sucking and she is an awesome listener.

So Magy made me a quad-shot Americano. About an hour later, she says "Girl! Where is your knitting? Now I see why you knit all the time. You can't sit still without it. Go out to the car and grab it - you're making me nuts!" LOL! So I ran out and grabbed a sock to work on while we finished talking. Not once has she ever made fun of me for having yarn in my purse. Yeah. Those kinds of friends are priceless.

Posted by midgeling at 02:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm doing more socks. Yes, socks. I have been sock obsessed for several years now. I have heard many people say "*sigh* [eyeroll] I can't wait for this stupid sock fad to be over with."

Sock fad? Um, honey - how long have you been knitting? I have been knitting 11 or 12 years and have been knitting socks almost that entire time. It's not a fad. It's been going strong for more years than you or I have been knitting. Centuries longer. Get over yourself. People like to knit socks. It's not a fad. Polyester sparkly glow in the dark fake fur yarn is a fad.

Posted by midgeling at 09:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Let's try to ignore the fact that the sock is sitting on my foot all wonky, mmmkay? Let's just appreciate that for the first time in a long while, I actually managed to shave my stupid legs before snapping a sock photo.

I started it! The second shipment from the Rockin Sock Club arrived many weeks ago and the yarn has been staring at me quite accusingly. So rather than risk an angry skein trying to strangle me in my sleep (they do that, you know) I decided to get the socks started. Once again, I am underestimating the size of my feet. I usually make my socks a tad on the large side, but the last couple of times they ended up a wee bit small. Small socks usually go to my mom.

So I also started editing my stuff at Ravelry. Holy Crap. There is no way in hell I can enter my whole yarn stash in there. Even just my whole sock yarn stash would take FOREVER. I have at least 4 plastic bins of just sock yarn. I have over 20 skeins of Opal. And pictures? Dude, I would fill up all the drive space on my server with all that after burning through all the space that Flickr would allow me. Yes - I am a shameful sock yarn addict. And I have been that way for about 7 years now. But hey - as time goes by, my taste in yarn gets better, lol!

Okay, I gotta git to bed. The Man gets antsy if I wander around the house too long after bedtime. He is a big baby who can't sleep without his security blanket. And yes, I would be said blankie. *sigh*

Posted by midgeling at 09:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Woot! I finally got my Ravelry invite!! So far I have only updated my profile. I haven't had the time to do anything else yet since I have this stupid, pesky thing called "work" to attend to. But I really like Ravelry so far. I can't remember which podcast said it, but I reamember hearing "It's like Myspace for knitters!" So true. It's really cool seeing a lot of familiar names and faces. I can't wait till I get the time to get my notebook updated.

Posted by midgeling at 10:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

And here they are. The latest finished pair of socks. I just finished them last night! I used the sock pattern from my skein of Fleece Artist Sea Wool and knit the pair from my Mama Llama sportweight self-striping yarn. So that's another 272 yards of sock yarn down.

I knit the foot and garter cuff on 2 mm needles and the ankle on size 3.25 mm needles. I tried the whole darn thing on 2 mm, but couldnt get the thing up over my foot. Weebug kindly loaned me her 3.25 mm circs since I was working on them at her house while we partied last Saturday for her birthday.

Posted by midgeling at 08:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

ED: I have been trying to write and post this stupid thing since Monday, and it is now Thursday. If it's not me being sick, it's friggin DRAMA everywhere. I'd like to personally tell everyone shooting out their negative vibes to go screw themselves. I don't need anything else negative this week.

Okay, so I have been sick. SICK. It's really a drug withdrawal (NO, not like methadone or anything like that). The mail order pharmacy screwed up my prescription, tried to fill the old one instead of filling the new one, which led to contacting the doc, who was wondering what-the-hell-is wrong-with-you-can't-you-read-the-paper-she-mailed-in-why-did-you-click-the-wrong-thingy-on-the-computer? So due to the pharmacy getting confused by a new piece of paper vs an old prescription still in their computer, I ran out of my medication. Okay, so why do I need these meds? To prevent my body from freaking out like it did these last 4 days. It all started Friday. Nausea, gastrointestinal ugliness, insomnia, fatigue, dizziness, numbness and prickly feeling hands and fingers, difficulty regulating body temperature - oh and the never ending migraine from HELL. Oh yeah - and I had allergy problems to contend with also.

And since physical crappiness wasn't enough, I must have drama elsewhere. Work is pretty much the same brand of stupid it always is. Nope. It is my friends that are wiggin me out. Weebug has her typical struggles - which aren't an issue for me (past my feeling of wishing I could do more to help her out when things get rough). But she is my nice little chunk of relative sanity these days in the friend department. Thank God for her. Really.

(Okay, that was written Monday and Tuesday. Today is THURS-friggin-DAY. Here's the part where I skip to the photos and then do a mental/emotional vomit post later on.)

Okay, so Saturday was a tournament sponsored by Untalan's Taekwondo in Graham, WA. Here's Harely doing her thing. She lost 10 to 12, but she did so good. The girl was pretty terrified of her. My favorite moment was when Harley kicked her in the gut/chest area, the girl went airborn, arced and landed flat on her butt with a gigantic THUD. It looked like a cartoon scene. The girl was okay, but it was one of those moments where you felt like you were in a real live Roger Rabbit movie.

And here is the mess that is my bag. I have a sock in some self striping Mama Llama and a Cascade Fixation baby sweater based on the Bamboo Baby Sweater in the One Skein Wonders Book. They are tangled and I was prevented by Mr Migraine from detangling the mess to get a proper photo.

I need to regroup for a bit. My grasp on my sanity and nice-nice is very tenuous at the moment. I may go into full-blown bitch mode in a bit. Have I said that I hate drama? Um, yeah. Well I hate it. And my life is full of what feels like high school crap at the moment. If you want to avoid this kind of thing, don't have any friends and don't, don't DON'T let any of your children do competitive sports on a damn elite team.

Posted by midgeling at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Okay, so for the Lime-N-Violet Sock Marathon, I have calculated what I have knit so far.

Sock #1 330 meters/360 yards
Sock #2 411 meters/450 yards
Sock #3 425 meters/465 yards
Sock #4 350 meters/380 yards
Sock #5 320 meters/350 yards
Sock #6 350 meters/328 yards

So that is a total of 2186 meters (2.186 km) or 2391 yards. that is 1.4 miles!! WOOT!!! That is a lot more than I thought I knit.

Posted by midgeling at 08:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Woohoo! another pair done! 300 more meters (328 yards) down.
Steinbach Wolle Strapaz Norweger Ringel80/20 Wool/Polymid. THis was yarn I receieved from my secret pal on the Lime-N-Violet Secret Pal Exchange.

Posted by midgeling at 06:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I forgot to post a pic of the cute sheepy stitch marker that Jennifer included in my order. She is standing on a dime in this photo. I just love it!

Posted by midgeling at 09:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here's my order from Loopy Ewe! I got Fleece Artist Seasilk in Cosmic Dawn (bottom) and Flece Artist in Paris (top). If you haven't ordered from Sheri, so right over there and spend some money. You won't be disappointed. She is the nicest person and the package arrived in like 2 days!

*sigh* I have just been petting it and wondering what on earth is going on the needles next...

Posted by midgeling at 03:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

(I didn't want you all to see the dirty spots on my wall that the flash highlights so well.)

They Conwy-ish socks are finished! They are "ish" because it is against my nature to follow a pattern to the letter. I used the stitch pattern in the Conwy socks by Nancy Bush. But I did them toe-up, with a garter stitch short row heel and a picot bind off.

I had about 6 grams leftover from the two balls of KPPPM. So that makes another 350 yards down for the sock marathon. Woot!

Posted by midgeling at 08:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We have had a joke that the two middle children are for sure Nathan's, but we may need to get a maternity test because they really aren't at all like me. They don't look like me or act like me.

Tonight, Kassie proved to me that she is my daughter.

Kassie is 5, and she decided to knit a scarf and mittens for Princess Leia Bear. So Harley cast on a few stitches with Kassie's very own needles I bought her to teach her to "poke, wrap, weee" and knit a few rows. So Kassie took over. But then we came downstairs for a while, got a snack and putzed around on the computer for a while.

A bit ago, Kassie was crying and running from room to room wailing "Where's my knitting?!?!?! Waaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!! I can't find my knitting!!! Baaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!! Mommy, where's my yarn? I NEED my yarn!!!"

Yup, she's my kid.

Posted by midgeling at 10:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So now that my head is sufficiently medicated and not going to explode just yet, I was able to find the photo of my swap package I received. It is from Lisa E!

Thanks so much, Lisa for the awesome package! As you can see, I got a book that I have had my eye on for a while - Sensational Knitted Socks, and FOUR balls of sock yarn. There is Baruffa in a great burgundy color (reds are my fave!) and some self-striping yarn with a name I can't pronounce, despite many years of German class, lol. I love it and can't wait to get started on some new socks from the book.

She also enclosed a cute little sheepy magnet, and had the whole thing wrapped up in pretty tissue paper. This was the first swap/exchange thingy I have participated in (not counting dishcloth or bookmark exchanges) and I had a great time. Thanks >Lisa!!

Posted by midgeling at 07:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

ETA: Dang, I have a spot on my lens. I can't believe I didn't see that and Photoshop it out. *sigh*

I made it a little farther on my Conwy sock. It is looking nice overall, I think. It fits snugly, but not too tight. The pattern isn't all that visible, but you can still see the ridges pretty clearly, and I like that. I think if I ever do this pattern again, I will use a less busy colored yarn to show off that traveling vine stitch a bit more. But really, I am pleased with it so far. Here's a detail shot:

Funny that when I started this sock, I had completely forgotten that I wanted to do a pair of Rozas next. I guess this just means that the Conwys just really wanted to be knit. And even though they aren't turning out "perfect" I am really happy with them. And I am weird about the yarn and pattern being 'perfect' for each other. I have a sock that I have knit in 2 different patterns already and I am probably going to rip them out again. I think that yarn will end up making a pair of Jaywalkers if it isnt too ratty looking by the time it is reknit yet again.

I guess the Conwy pattern was just really calling out to me quite loudly.

Posted by midgeling at 10:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

4 out of the 6 people in my family made a trip to the doctor today. Kass needed a followup for her sinus infection/bronchitis episode. Harley needed to be seen for her allergies and the infected spots on her face and ears. Nathan needed to be seen for his sinus infection and probable case of strep. And I needed blood work fto go with my annual exam (oh, goodie) that I had on Wednesday.

So... Kass is okay and probably doesnt have asthma just yet. Harley had a case of eczema and/or bug bite on her face that turned into a staph/strep/viral infection. She also had a sinus infection (again for the second time this year). Nathan was just all around crappy and I happily donated blood to the nice, needle-wielding phlebotomist in the office.

So 6 prescriptions and $96 later, Harley and Nathan are drugged out and feeling slightly better. And we still have 3 prescriptions yet to be filled out by mail-order. Sheesh. Harley's allergies are as bad as mine. Thank God our insurance is good.

I started another sock while I was at the dojang watching Chace's class and got to work on it more today at the doc's office:

KPPPM, size 000 (1.5 mm) needles, 80 sts around in 2x2 ribbing. Too damn big. To be honest, I ended up with 80 stitches because I was happily watching the taekwondo class while increasing away on the toe. And when I realized I had 80 stitches, I thought to myself "Oh, that won't be too many sitiches, after all, I am working on 000 needles!!! That's just crazy to begin with!" Rip, rip, rip......

Aaaah, much better fit. I am still on 000 needles, getting about 9 sts to the inch and 72 stitches here is working muuuch better. And 72 is like the most common number used in sock patterns. So I decided to do the Conwyn Sock from Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road. You can't really see the pattern too well yet. Hopefully as I get more into it, it will look a bit more distinct. I thought it would show okay, because the yarn I am using is similar to the yarn used in the book. But I'm not so sure now. Eh, I don't care if it is obscured. It's a fun pattern. That's what counts.

Oh, and the yarn? I got it in trade with Weebug for the leftover yarn from my Mad Cow socks. I had 65g of black and 75g left of the zebra stripe. She is using it to add to her Opal of the same colors make her new nephew a baby sweater. It looks good so far!

Posted by midgeling at 03:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I finally finished them. These are my Socks That Rock Monsoon Inside Out Socks. How's that for a name? They are a bit hard to get up over the ankles, but I like them. I knit the feet on size 00 DPNs, and the cuff on size 1 16" circulars. (Please try to ignore the puky greeness of the basement carpet in the background. Although, it all kind of matches. Hmmm.)

One thing I am really irritated beyond belief about is that NOBODY makes circular needles in 1.75 mm. And why the hell not? I hate knitting on 7" long steel needles just because I don't knit as tight as everyone else. I am thinking I just may end up using my 000s for socks from now on. It would make a nice, thick fabric, but that is a lot of stitches to put into a sock. Eh, I guess I will just have to experiment.

Anyway, here is a detail of the socks, left side the "right" way out, and the left side is the alternate "inside out" way. Once you get to the cuff, these socks really fly. I did 3 pattern repeats on the cuff and I ended up with 25 grams of yarn left over. I think I prefer the left sock. They seem to hug my feet better when I have this side out.

I haven't been doing a lot of blog updating lately because life has sort of been going to hell for me. Not too bad, but I just haven't had enough time for the fun stuff for me. Kids have been sick, I have had migraines and work sucks (as usual). I need to make more time for me. I have been thinking a lot about quitting my job again. I think it was a complete mistake to go back there. I should have known that the crap would start up again. I don't need the money that bad. It isn't worth the headache.

I need to get to bed now. I am a sleepy girl

Posted by midgeling at 10:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

It is beautful. It is from overseas. Only one is for me. And I can't decide which color to keep and which color to part with. Decisions....

Posted by midgeling at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

OMG, I finished them. I missed making it to the second round by less than an hour, I believe. Manda beat me out. Oh, well. I was close.

Posted by midgeling at 11:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

This morning is sort of good. My boss decided to get me to set a schedule. So I start work at 9 every morning. I actually work less this way. It seems that I was working for free before - I wasn't really good about reporting the actual hours worked. I got my breakfast, snapped a fuzzy photo and sat down here to type. Fuzzy photo seems sort of appropriate since I feel fuzzy-headed since I haven't yet finished my coffe. Harley and Chace are both home sick today - Harley with stomach flu and Chace with strep. Yup, he must have caught it from me.

Here you see my coffee and bagels. The coffee is in my giant Starbucks Portland coffee mug that I got at the 2006 Taekwondo Friendship Tournament (I think) in Portland at the Rose Garden. I had another mug from Junior Olympics in Atlanta, but some person who refuses to identify themselves broke it. I am still sort of traumatized by the demise of my favorite coffee mug, so I haven't been able to throw it away. The chipped-to-hell mug is still on my kitchen counter. The bagels look kinda gross, but they are really quite tasty. They are lightly toasted and have balsamic, fresh mozzarella, proscuitto and sun dried tomatoes. Yummy!

The sock is Froeliche Wolle (I always want to sy "Frohliche Weinachten" - Merry Christmas). It's stripey pinks and purples, and the pattern is S12 Scalloped Socks. I was part of the Opal Sock of the Month Club several years ago and never managed to make these socks. I screwed them up somewhere along the line - I suspect sometime at yesterday's visit to the pediatrician. I get to tink back a couple of rounds so I can get moving on this sock again.

Posted by midgeling at 07:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My Fortune Cookie told me: On Wednesday, you will be unable to make an omlette without breaking any legs. Get a cookie from Miss Fortune

Here is a (more) decent photo of Nathan's socks I knit him for Christmas. It is just a boring 2x2 rib sock, but they are wooly and warm.

And here is my LAST FO OF 2006:

I started these yesterday while I was sick and in bed. I just finished them! I had a lone ball of Regia Ringel hanging out in my ktichen on top of my rice dispenser (hey, I am asian - we have these things). I have no idea how it got there or what it was doing. I also have no idea why I let it live there for so many months. These ankle socks were made with about 20 grams each, since I had to toss out about 10 grams that moths snacked on. The colored blob in the upper right corner is the last few yards of yarn I had left over.

You know what else you can glean from this photo? MY MOTHER HATES ME. You see those packing peanuts in the background? My mother sent me amost 32 gallons of these things in the boxes that UPS brought me. Scattered in amongst these styrofoam bits were the Christmas gifts for me, Nathan and the 4 children that routinely destroy my home. I hate foam peanuts. If my mommy cared at all for my sanity, she would never have done that to me.

I have swept those damn things up for days, now. I managed to get them into a 32 gallon bag. Double bagged. Those damn kids ripped into the bag and they are all over the damn living room again. I much prefer those peanut things made of rice. I flushed those down the toilet after the kids had gotten through licking and sticking them together to make swords, crowns, etc.

I did a bad thing today. I lost it. Yelled at the kids when I saw those f*cking peanuts all over the floor. I told them I couldn't wait until they all went back to school and left me home in peace so I could clean up after their sorry asses. I made my son cry and I feel bad. True to form, none of my girls gave a shit.

I can't wait till they have kids. I am SO sending all their birthday and Christmas gifts with packing peanuts. I don't care if they only live down the street. It will be money well spent.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Posted by midgeling at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I finished it the other night. It is a variation of the Pinwheel Dishcloth, which is taken from the Magical Mitered Vest. I added a few rounds of garter stitch to bump the size up to 8" from a rather small 6".

Oh, and I finished a pair of socks for Nathan rather quickly in time for Christmas. Since I had a bit of a time constraint, I just made them in a 2x2 rib (72 sts), knit the cuff for about 8", turned the heel (from memory and both socks matched, lol!) and knit for about another 8" from the heel flap edge before decreasing the toe. I used Regia Ringel. I can't remember the color number and the remaining label is somewhere in my car. He saw me knitting them a couple of weeks ago and asked if they were for him. I said "No, they are mine. I don't have the right color for you yet." So he tuned them out completely and still managed to be somewhat surprised when he got them Christmas day.

When he gets home, I will try to get a proper photo of them. They look much better on him. I would model them, but I wear a women's size 6.5 and these socks were knit for his size 11.5 EEEE feet.

Posted by midgeling at 07:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I am sick. Again. In time for Christmas. Again. 4th year in a row. Every stinking Christmas. I have been sick since Sunday. I have not shipped any presents out yet. Hell, I haven't wrapped any, either. I have only been out of bed to work my 4 hours a day. Then I crawl back i bed and sleep. Wait - I load the dishwasher, then I crawl back in bed. The house is a mess. Big mess. Really big mess. Because you know how it works - my family loves me so much they save up everything for me to do when I am better.

They are mocking me. The Evil Toe Eyes are mocking me. I must rip them out....

Posted by midgeling at 01:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Guess what this is? (besides a bad photo taken on my phone) This is me and my 5 year old daughter Kassie. I am helping Kassie hold the needle steady and she is mumbling "Poke, wrap, wheee!" It was the only little poem thingy I could think of that Kassie could remember to help her keep track of what she was supposed to do. She actually caught on pretty quick. I bought her a pair of kid sized US8 needles and gave her an old ball of leftover Red Heart in bright red. She's knitting a scarf for her teddy bear.

In other kid knitting news, Harley'sfriend Claire asked me to teach her to knit. So I found an old pair of bamboo circs and skein of something that looks like vintage avocado colored Patons Decor. I cast on sts and knit one row to start her out. Here she is after several rows. she has some nice, lacy yarn over holes, but it looks good!

In other less fun knitting news, I decided That I am going to frog the socks back to the toe. Why? Well first look at how far I got - just past the ankle.

Okay, now Why do I want to frog them? Well, no matter how now hard I try, these funky "toe eyeballs" (as Nathan called them ) are really bugging the crap out of me. I can't even convince myself that they are a design element. I wanted the arrow things to point down toward my toes, but if I had given this pattern more thought, I would have realized that the biasing would make that bump of knit fabric have to go somewhere. If not toward the cuff to form a scalloped edge, then toward the toe area to form "toe eyeballs."

Eh, oh well. Live and learn.

Posted by midgeling at 11:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In my last post I showed the progress I was making on my "Henpecked Socks That Rock Broadripple Inspired Sock". Well, Nathan was admiring the sock and lamenting about how his knitterly wife hasn't knit him a pair of socks in a couple of years. So I took pity on the poor guy and decided that I would let him have these socks. He snagged them and squeezed his foot in. They were snug, but not too tight. I think. But after making some calculations, I figured that I was going to end up needing about 200 more yards of yarn to give his US size 11.5 EEEE feet something more substantial than ankle socks.

So I went online and bought more yarn. Of course. But pay all that shipping for one lonely skein of STR? Never! It made much more sense to buy the Farmhouse Mediumweight and the Love In Idleness Lightweight to accompany the second skein of Henpecked.

So with all that said, guess what? He isn't keeping the socks. After I ordered the second skein. Why? Because when I got to the heel section, it was way too damn tight on his big old cankles. (And yes, I had to explain to him what cankles are.) Then right as I was about to say "Oh I can just rip back a bit and do more gusset increases before starting the heel flap..." he said "That's okay, I am not too crazy about the color anyway. Do you have any blue?" *facepalm* I think he only pretended to like the sock as much as he did to try to get a pair of new socks out of me. Now that just shows that I haven't knit him nearly enough socks. My bad.

My husband's hairy canckle:

So now I am going to have 2 skeins of this colorway. Not that I am complaining. He just doesn't care for the color. So I am going to rip back several inches and adjust the heel for my size 6.5 feet. They aren't snug on me, but they aren't lose either. I think I will like them. After that, I just need to dig through my mountainous stash of sock yarn (more than 1 extra large size Space Bag full) and see if I can find a couple of skeins of bluish sock yarn for him.

I need to find the canister vac so I can suck the air out of the space bag again. Or else that giant bag of fibery goodness will not be fitting under my chaise lounge again.

Posted by midgeling at 07:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I never thought we would do it, but we did. We traded in the Little green Short Bus for a New Black Short Bus. The new one is PRETTY. I just love her. She is new and black and shiny and CLEAN. The dealer was having a customer appreciation event last night. They fed as dinner and plied as with wine. They gave out prizes, but we didn't win any. At about 8:30, we started talking to the sales guys about the car. After giving Nathan 6 beers or so and some intensive negotiations (LOL!), we drove off at 11:41pm with 4 Candy canes, 2 balloons, a magnum of champagne and a new car. It was a very weird experience.

And now for squeee the second. ("Squeee" is a term I have become reacquainted with courtesy of Ms. Lime and Ms.Violet.) My Socks that Rock arrived, so I started searching for the perfect pattern. I thought I would do the Broadripple socks, but for some reason I decided I wanted to do them Toe up. I can't recall why I wanted to do them toe up. But I did some research and found the Magic Cast On for Toe-up socks. So I happily knit away and got several inches into the toe when it dawned on me that the sock was awfully W-I-D-E.Yup, my gauge was right on, but my feet are just really small. So I had to alter the pattern to make the circumference about an inch smaller. I also had to reverse the decreases to make everything point the way I wanted the zigs to zag.

So I explained all this to Nathan last night when we were going to bed. He pointed out that I had basically written my own pattern and just based it on a design I liked by the time it was all done; and I should write it all down and post it. Good idea. (BTW, this colorway is called "Henpecked".)

Posted by midgeling at 08:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

He looks cute doesn't he? He busted into my favorite knitting bag I bought from Levenger and tore into the felted catnip mouse kit I bought from Schoolhouse Press and then the dumb piece of crap PEED 0N MY M~FING BAG!!

I hate that cat. We have always had a difficult relationship, but the stupid fuzzbutt blew it once more. He better hope Woolwash and Febreeze get rid of the smell.

Posted by midgeling at 11:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I had askein of Cascade 220 superwash in a deep purple color that I originally planned to make a baby kimono with out of the Mason-Dixon knitting book, but I changed my mind. I decided to make a baby hat instead. I remember a sock pattern from a while back - I think it may have been from the E.J. Slayton sock book.

So for the hat, I cast on 72 stitches and did a K2P2 rib for 3 rounds. The 4th round I did a twisted stitch on the knit stitches and repeated these 4 rounds until the hat was about 8" long before beginning the decreases. Lexa likes the hat, and I hope she is okay when I take it to package it up and send it off to baby Jackson in Colorado.

I received my Socks that Rock today. I got one skein in Rocktober and one in Henpecked. Both are in the lightweight yarn. I love the colors more in person
than I did just checking them out on the website. I was thinking of making some Jaywalkers with the yarn, but I'm not totally sure yet.

I hope everyone had a good Turkey Day. Ours was good. I made a turkey, mashed potatoes, peas, orange and ginger glazed yams, gravy and rice. Instead of pumpkin pie, I made a German Chocolate Cake. I have no idea why I chose that, but it was good. Tomorrow we go to Anne'sfor the larger family gathering.

Posted by midgeling at 11:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It is the Checkered Stripes dishclothfrom Creative Knitting Magazine. I made one a while back in brighter colors. These are light pastels.This looks nice, but I think that I liked the brighter cloth a little more. Brighter colors seemed to bring out the pattern better.

Darn it. One of the kids messed up the keyboard on my tablet PC, So am sitting here in bed hand writing this whole entry using the text /handwriting recognizing thingy. It is actually Working quite well. I am sort of surprised that I can use my regular old handwriting and this thing picks it all up and converts it to text so accurately. The only thing that it seems to be having trouble with is getting the spaces between the words all the time and capitalizing some words unnecessarily. But I love technology. This is too cool.

Anyway, back to dishcloths. I am a bit behind on the latest Monthly Dishcloth Knit - Along. I accidently saw what this month's design was (I don't like to peek ahead) but think I will still knit it anyway.

Well, it is late and I am really Tired, so it is time for me to listen to some music as I fall asleep tonight. Goodnight and I hope all you Americans at home and abroad have a Happy Thanksgiving. To everyone else, happy Thursday!!

Posted by midgeling at 01:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In the last week I have become addicted to podcasts. If you look in the menu bar at the right, then scroll down, you will notice that my fave podcast list has grown. I always sort of listened to them when I had a spare moment, but now I listen to them the whole time I work. What will I do when I listen to every back podcast in my list? Probably just find some more. There are a TON.

My fingertip itches like crazy. I know, it is a good sign - it is healing. At least it isnt infected and oozing icky crap anymore.

I want to post a pic. I hate posting an entry without posting a pic. I don't have a photo handy. I am in the office today and my flash cards with my nifty photos are in my tablet pc at home.

Okay, I found one - Here is an old photo of me and Kassie:

I get to go home soon so I have to get ready to jet. I was in meetings all day and I am pooped.

Peace out.

Posted by midgeling at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I had a whole entry all typed out, and then one wrong click... it was all gone. So I am going to go with short blurbs of To-The-Point-ness.

Happiness is finding a squid topped pencil at the grocery store:

Misery is cutting a piece of your finger off while cooking dinner:

Shared misery is when your oldest daughter tries to help with dinner by draining the boiling pot of macaroni onto her thigh while you try to stop the finger bleeding:

After an ER trip for somme burn cream, bandages and Tylenol with codeine, Harley is doing much better. I looked, but never found the missing piece of finger.

I finished the Jolly Green Tomten. I sewed the zipper in while I was at Weebug's house last Saturday. I hate the placement, so I am going to rip it out and sew it back in again. Well, once I find my seam ripper and grow back the tip of my finger. (Typing and knitting are really difficult without the use o your left index finger.) I will post photos when I think it is more presentable.

But for your viewing pleasure, I give you Harley's fuzzy scarf. I finished knitting it yesterday but still need to weave in ends and add the fringe (ack!). I don't care for fringe myself, but Harley wants it.

Posted by midgeling at 08:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here are a couple of things (see photo below). This is my tablet on my bed where I am typing this post. I am still sick with this headachy, backachy thing. Nathan is coming down with it now. And see the pretty pink thing? That is my black iPod that I bought using my birthday $ and Apple Store gift card. It has a pretty pink cover now - it just came in today. Now I won't be quite so paranoid about bumping and bruising my iPod.

Now the green thing is the Jolly Green Tomten. It is coming along nicely. I finished one sleeve yesterday between naps. I actually started on the second sleeve and have just gotten to where you start the sleeve decreases. I think I will get to work on it a bit more tonight. I should be catching up on housework, but I worked 9 hous today and I feel like poop.

Oh, yeah. And then there has been the rain. You know, Seattle gets rain. Well, we were getting kind of dry up here, but someone must have been doing one hell of a naked raindance at the last full moon, because it has been pouring since last night. Yeah, back to that "Seattle gets rain" thing. Really, Seattle gets drizzle. Today has been rain. Lots of it. Non-stop, pouring down rain. So of course, the gutters were clogged with pine needles. Then they got so heavy they started falling down. The water started collecting at the side of the house and seeping into my basement - the side with the dirty laundry piled up. That pile needs to get washed real soon before I start my own mold farm. I spent my "breaks" today soaking up rainwater with dirty towels and spinning the water out in the washer until Nathan could get home from work and fix the gutters.

I love the rain. No, really. I do. I am not being facetious. I love the rain. It is the old leaky house that is a pain in the arse.

Posted by midgeling at 07:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am sick. I think it is a sinus infection. I slept for a good part of today. I have been fighting it all week, but I think it is winning.

I finished a couple more. I haven't started October's yet, but I plan on it. As usual, they aren't blocked. But here they are.

KAL - September - Oak Leaf

KAL - Mid Month September - Leaf Patterned Lace

Posted by midgeling at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This was once a ball of Opal sock yarn. Now it is a mess and I am sick of dealing with it. Stella the Cat tried to look all innocent, but I am not buying it. Besides, Kassie tattled on her this morning. Most of my knitting is half done. Actully, a lot of it is more than half done. Remember when I was doing the Tomten baby sweater? This one:

Okay, well I decided that it looked too pink in the light for the baby. Oh, and he was actualy born, btw, after some complications and some stays at a couple of different hospitals. Jackson Miller was born on 9/22, I believe. Anyway, I was just going to finish knitting it, see how the final product looked and then decide if I was going to send it or not. Well, the cat (I am guessing the cat that started that Opal mess up top - she's the yarn lover of the 3 felines) got into the knitting bag and stole the stupid ball of charcoal gray yarn I needed to finish the sweater. So I looked off and on for a few weeks, then gave up. I found it the day after I bought more yarn to re-knit the Tomten. Figures. Can I take that as a sign that I was just meant to buy more yarn anyway?

I went to The Yarn Stash in Burien and bought some more yarn. I bought 3 skeins of Dark Horse Fantasy in the variegated green and 1 skein in a darker green for the sweater trim. Here's what I have so far:

It is definitely more masculine. Ad it probably won't fit him till next winter, so I should really get crackin on a baby sweater he can wear this winter. I already have the pattern picked out. I think. Maybe. Probably. Hmmm...

Posted by midgeling at 02:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We went to Gene and Rhea's baby shower yesterday. I knit their gift since I am currently hooked on the Mason-Dixon Knitting book. I was cutting it close.

How close?
Nathan, how many more miles?
Okay, how many exits till we get off the freeway?
Okay, now how many exits?
Wait, can you drive reeeeal slow?

I snipped the yarn ends on the burp cloth as we pulled up to the house. I just made it. I didn't take photos of the items with my real camera. I only had my camera phone to use. Big difference in photo quality between a Samsung e715 and a Canon 20D. And the photos were taken in the car driving down I-5 in Tacoma.

So here is a photo of the bib on top of the burp cloth:

And here is the burp cloth:

And here is the kimono. I lengthened it by an inch, because I thought the original was a little too short for my tastes. It was fun, except I found that I didn't care for hand sewing 8 ribbons to it. I am not too good at that kind of thing.

And here is the photo of the Sweetheart Hat (pattern fromm Kid's Caps IV by Ann Norling). It looks better actually on the baby's head since it stretches out a bit and you can actually see the hearts knit into the sides.

And the colors in the photos are horrible too. The bib is a deep rose, the burp cloth is deep purple and the hat is fuschia. The burp cloth and bib were made from Lion Brand Kitchen Cotton and the kimono used Peaches and Creme. The hat was knit from Cascade 220 Superwash. I am planning on knitting booties to go with the hat and just giving them to Gene and Rhea later on. It is nice knowing they are having a girl, so I could use the fuschia and rose.

The shower was fun. There was some seriously tasty Filipino food. Tons of it! And they even sent us home with a plate like any Filipino family would do. If you don't have any Filipino firends, I highly recommend you go find yourself one, lol!

Posted by midgeling at 08:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bad news: Went to the dentist today and I need a 15 year old silver filling replaced with a nice gold crown. Lexa needs 3 fillings. Kassie needs 1.

Good News: Chace and Harley's teeth are just peachy. But wait. It gets better...

On the way back from the dentist, we always stop at the Australian Pie Company for lunch. That's my (at least) semi-annual piece of artery clogging heaven. Okay, so I am driving down Aumbaum toward the Pie Co. Then, like I do twice a year, I turn left on SW 152nd. On the right side of the street, about 10 shops before my intended lunch stop, I see a sign that says "Yarn Stash".

Yarn Stash.

How can you not stop? So I give an excited squeak, say "That wasn't there before!" and whip into the nearest parking spot. Harley groaned and said "Oh, no! Not another yarn shop!" So I leave her in the car with the little kids while I bounced into Yarn Stash.

The lady I spoke to was very nice. Judging from the business card, it was either Bonnie Moore or Beth Malaykhan. It turns out that the store used to be on SW 135th Street, but they moved recently. Okay, so after a brief chat, I bought a skein of Sierra Quatro in Creme Brulee to make the September Dishcloth from the Dishcloth KAL. It was suggested that Fall colors be used for this one. I know, Quatro makes for an expensive dishcloth, but the colors are pretty. I also bought a ball of Cascade 220 superwash in sort of a fuschia color and one and one ball in a deep purple color. I have a couple of friends with babies getting ready to be born, and I have some more baby kimonos I want to knit.

So I finally walked out of Yarn Stash with 1 skein + 2 balls of yarn, after signing up for their newsletter and birthday club. (20% discount all next month since it is my birthday 9/19!) I am a happy girl. I like that yarn store. It is smallish, but open, friendly and lots of natural fibers. There seemed to be a nice variety with a good range of colors. It is definitely a good place to go if you like Cascade. And it is just a few doors down from my beef and mushroom & beef, tomato and onion pies!

EDIT: Bonnie and Beth clarified that it is ONE 20% off shopping trip this birthday month. That's what I meant, but in my excitement, made it come out all wrong, lol!

The Yarn Stash
615 SW 152nd
Burien, WA 98198
206-246-2727
theyarnstash@hotmail.com

Tue-Fri 10am-6pm
Sat 10 am-5pm

Posted by midgeling at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Here are Kassie and Lexa in their Princess Hats that I knit for them. (Try not to look at the mess in the background.)The pattern came from New Knits on the Block. They are stuffed with paper in the photo since they weren't standing up well, so I was considering lining them with Timtex.

I finished them last week when my MIL was here, but never managed to take a picture. So she took the picture and I just cropped and posted it here. So MIL gets this photo credit cause I am a bit lazy.

I am at work today waiting for my ride to show up. Cow orker Joy took me to New Kowloon for dim sum. We had to talk cause she has been having quite the drama in her life. It was fun and nice to get to hang out with her again. Afterward, she made me go to Gossip for taro bubble tea. *burp* Boy, am I stuffed. Ugh...

Posted by midgeling at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here's the dishcloth I finished tonight. It was another fun one, and I only goofed a couple of times in carrying the colors up the side of the dishcloth. I didn't sweat it since it is only a dishcloth. It doesn't need to be totally perfect. I don't know exactly what the stitch pattern is called. Here's a detail shot of the pattern:

Man, I am rocking the dishcloths these days. They are quick and pretty darn addicting. Most of the other areas of my life have been yielding little in the way of giving me a sense of accomplishment. At least these are quick, pretty and useful. I wish more people had those qualities. Maybe that has something to with why I am a bit introverted and shy around new people, lol.

Posted by midgeling at 09:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here's the Swish With a Twist dishcloth that I finished. It isn't blocked at all because I got lazy tonight. I had to iron Nathan's damn shirts. I like ironing about as much... no I think I actually prefer scrubbing the toilet over ironing shirts. Nathan got to play World of Warcraft while I ironed. I have no Ipod because HK's stupid friend stole it and then moved to Utah. I hate ironing even more now.

Anyway, here's the dishcloth. It was a lot of fun. The Checkered Stripes dishcloth was really super duper easy to memorize. This was a bit more difficult, but once I got through the second pattern repeat, I didn't really have to look at the pattern anymore.

Note to the husband reading over my sholder as I type this: I want a replacement ipod so I can happily dance around the house singing loudly and off key as I do these stupid household chores. My birthday is next month.

K - I have some knitting to do and a vampire novel to read. Goodnight.

Posted by midgeling at 09:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here's the Mid-July 2006 Dishcloth from the KAL. I used more green cotton from the cone I bought last Christmas. My MIL just left this morning on a plane back to Albuquerque, NM, so I sent her home with this dishcloth, the Checkered Stripes dishcloth (shown below) from the current issue of Creative Knitting and the August Lighthouse dishcloth from the KAL.

I also finished the Swish With a Twist dishcloth yesterday. I just have to weave in the ends and take a picture. I'll try to post that later today. Oh, and they say this pattern will only be posted for a limited time, so if you want it, go to their website soon!

Dude. I am seriously boooooring. I am falling asleep just reading what I am writing. I am not at all my usual chipper, perky self. Okay, so I am rarely ever chipper and perky, but still... If you read my previous couple of posts in a monotone, near-comatose manner, you get an idea of how scintillating my personality has been these last few days. I am allergy-ridden and tired as hell. I am bloated too. Life is a chunk of fun. WOOT!

Posted by midgeling at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here's Kassie enjoying Newcastle Beach Park in Bellevue. Nathan's mom is out here for a few days so we hit the water and the sunshine yesterday.

I got the new issue of Creative Knitting the other day. I just subscribed and received my first issue. Here is the start of the Checkered Stripes dishcloth. The pattern doesn't show too well from far away int he variegated yarn, but I think it is still pretty.

I also finished the Mid-July Dishcloth from the KAL group, but that will have to wait until tomorrow to get posted. I am on a dishcloth jag, can you tell? Now if I only used them to clean my house...

Posted by midgeling at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Here's my August Dishcloth from the Dishcloth Knit Along. There are 2 a month, and I joined the day before they started the August one. Every day, 10 rows are posted to the group, and after 6 days, I got my cloth. Of course I can't ever follow a pattern exactly - it's against my nature. So I added an extra garter ridge to the top and bottom borders and here you have it. At first I thought it was going to be a bug or a dragonfly, but on Day 4 I finally caught on. A lighthouse!

10 rows a day. You know, I can actually keep up with this one. It was fun! I can't wait for the next installment.

Posted by midgeling at 06:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay, that was lunch. We had rotisserie chicken the other day for dinner that I cooked on the grill. So today I decided to take the leftover chicken and make some chicken noodle soup. It was TASTY. Orange bell peppers, celery, carrots, onion, roasted garlic, noodles and chicken chunks. Yummy!

Okay, so here is part of my stash. It is a couple of dozen skeins of various colors and varieties of brown sheep, 30 skeins of Peer Gynt in gray, white and black, a couple hundred yards of pale blue laceweight mohair, and about a dozen skeins of worsted weight shetland in an assortment of colors. It is in a dead Space Bag here on top of my chaise lounge. Space Bags do not do well in homes with spastic cats.

My stash is now in a 30 gallon plastic purple Sterilite container that is doubling as a coffee table. Yeah, I am ghetto. I can't help myself. If you saw my house you would understand why a 30 gallon plastic bin is a step up. As soon as I finish boxing up the weird crap here in my living room, I am painting these nasty kid-smudged walls. I need a change.

Can you believe that? That is only part of my stash. A small part. And just yesterday I bought 9 skeins of cotton yearn for the Monthly Dishcloth group that I joined last week. This is out of control. I think I have a problem (shhhh... don't tell Nathan). "Hi. My name is midgeling. I am strugling with a yarn addiction. And a book addiction. Please don't judge. I am doing the best I can. I will overcome."

And the Yarn Diet begins...

Posted by midgeling at 03:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay, if you scroll down and look on the right side of this blog, you will see "random books from my library" or something like that. The website I used gives you 200 free "spots" so you can list all your books. You have to pay to upgrade is you want to list more. I have only entered my knitting, tatting and lace books that I own. I am almost at that 200 mark. Yikes.

Here is Kassie modeling the (not so) pointy princess hat I am knitting for her. It hasn't been fulled yet, so it is nice and huge and floppy. I am making one for Lexa too, so Kassie has to wait until I get Lexa's all knitted before I can throw them both into the washer. They are both pretty much the same color - Lexa's pink is just a bit different since they are different brands of yarn. I am hoping to have this done this weekend, but you know how things go for me. I am not holding my breath.

Posted by midgeling at 10:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay, here is a sweater I found today. I started it a long time ago for someone, and I can't even remember who. I kind of think it was for Lexa, and she is now 3. All I have to do is ONE SIDE of the buttonband. The side with the holes. I remember knitting it several times and ripping it out because it wasn't perfect. Well, it wasn't perfect enough. I was even considering ripping out the side that is still there today, because I didn't like how it looked. I tried picking up many different numbers of stitches, and nothing looked right. I think I just need to finish the one stupid side, put buttons on the damn thing and give it to my new niece Liz. This is ridiculous.

Okay, and here is the stupid FO I was talking about before. I have been knitting these socks for over a year. They are the pair that I carried around in various purses, bags, backpacks, etc. They were lost for about 8 months. Somewhere along the line, I lost the needles I was using to knit them with (thanks to the little girls). I thought I used the same size when I started the second sock. I really did. I just wanted to finish the damn things because I was sick of seeing the yarn floating around and the socks unfinished for like 2 years. They are simple socks - 2x2 ribbing, with every 6th round purled. I didn't use a pattern - these are just sort of made up as I go along and the "pattern" stays in my head.

Okay, so I finally finish the second sock and try on both of the tupid things. As I knit, I made sure I used the same number of repeats in the cuff and the foot. I knew that here and there I purled the 7th round instead of the 6th, but no big deal. I didn't care much because you really couldn't tell. What you can tell is that one sock is longer and looser than the other because I used a size 2.0 mm on the first sock and a 2.5 mm needle on the second. I laughed like a maniac when I saw that. I just knew that with the way my knitting has been going lately, this "experienced" knitter can't even make a pair of socks. Whatever. They are handknit wool socks and they will end up keeping someone's feet warm.

Posted by midgeling at 09:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Earlier Lexa came up tp me and asked for help finding pants because she wanted to go outside. She said "I have to wear this sweater though because blue is my favorite color." So we gor her some capris and out she went. She started howling (and so I ran out to snap this photo), so I asked what was wrong. She said it was cold and needed a jacket. She refused to wear shoes.

I knit this little raglan sweater back in 1998 for my son who is now 9. He wore it from ages 14 months to when he was almost 3. Then Kassie wore it. Lex is 3 now and is seen here modeling the very same sweater. What's it made out of that let it last this long through countless washings? Red Heart, of course, lol! That was the first and last sweater I ever knit with that. The yarn felt too rough as I knit it. My fingers actually got sore once when I spent more than an hour knitting it.

Funny that the kids all loved that sweater, even though it is not very soft and the neck is just a smidge too tight. I think I will definitely have to hang on to that one.

Posted by midgeling at 09:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Tomten sweater is coming along - slowly. It is actually fast, easy knitting. The problem I had was that I kept picking it up and putting it back down to go take care of these emergencies whizzing around me. I wasn't paying attention to tension, being consistent in how I was picking up the underarm stitches, etc. So I ripped the sleeve out and re-knit to about this same point. Twice. Third time's a charm, right?

I have like a billion DPNs, and I have come to the conclusion that I would rather use the 2 circular method for small things like socks and sleeves. Magic Loop is nice too, since you only haave to worry about one needle (and it rarely pops out of the stitches while being abused in the bottom of your knitting bag) but I actually like the actual feel of double circs when knitting. No adjusting or fiddling with cables or stitches. Just lightning fast knitting.

I need to finish up some old projects that have stalled. I have a couple of socks that need the mates, as well as a shadow knitting sweater that I am anxious to get cracking on. Oh, and there is a shawl, too. Hopefully soon...

Posted by midgeling at 09:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Everyone is having babies. Gene and Jason - a couple of Nathan's friends from work are expecting. Not with each other - they and their wives. My BIL just added his 5th child (Elizabeth Anne) to his family. I think of her as "Baby Buff" because their cousin Buffy's real name is Beth Anne. Buffy is also pregnant, due in October. I just finished with a round baby blanket for her. I just have to weave in ends and wash the Gatorade out of it before blocking.

I started it during Harley's Tae Kwon Do team practice on April 5. I cast off the final stitches on Saturday afternoon. I did most of it on the trip we took to Porkland, OR for the Tae Kwon Do Regional Qualifiers (that explains the Gatorade spills). Harley won Bronze for Poomse and Silver for Sparring. So she qualified for the National Elite Division for the Junior Olympics in Atlanta this July. WOOT!

Oh, since Buffy's baby is sort of a big deal for me (Anne's first grandchild) I am sort of on a roll and inspired to do more serious knitting. I also started a Tomten Jacket (E. Zimmermann) in a Ruby color superwash wool. It looks a little pinkish for a boy, but I think the the charcoal I chose for the contrast color ought to tone it down and make it all look neutral enough. They live in the mountains in Colorado, so wool ought to keep the little critter nice and warm.

I'll post more as I progress. :-)

Posted by midgeling at 11:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

You are Shetland Wool.
You are a traditional sort who can sometimes be a
little on the harsh side. Though you look
delicate you are tough as nails and prone to
intricacies. Despite your acerbic ways you are
widely respected and even revered.


What kind of yarn are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Posted by midgeling at 01:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I cleaned out my purse. A while back, Weebug gave me some mesh zipper pouch hings. They are great! I love stuff like that. My crap is no longer rolling around the bottom of my bag. The red one now has my essentials - lip gloss, gum, allergy eye drops, decongestant and advil. The yellow one has my sock-in-progress. I have a larger bag that fell out and is in my car that keeps the feminine stuff plus a hairbrush.

Oh, and I also finally finished that fuzzy mobius scarf. Now I need some other small project to take with me in my giant bag. Maybe I will finish off an old project or start a new one. What to do....

I got a phone call yesterday. I start work Monday - probably. I was quite happy being unemployed. Now I am going back to work for the same place. My stipulation was that there was no way on God's green earth I was going to ever report to Petey again as long as I had life left in this damn body of mine. They agreed.

Why am I doing this? I don't like working for that place. Oh, yeah. The money. My job pays pretty decently. Gideon is my new boss. He is cool. I like him. I hate Peter-the-lying-sexist-sack-of-shit. Have I said that recently? He is one of the few humans on this planet that I can say that I hate. I don't like to hate. But the venom in me toward that man is freakishly potent.

Okay, we had a Tae Kwon Do tournament last Saturday in Monroe, Oregon. Harley got bronze and kicked some impressive ass. Hopefully soon I will get to posting some pictures on my photoblog.

Posted by midgeling at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay, I worked the fundraiser last Sunday at Seahawks Stadium (I refuse to call it Q***t Field). Wonderful, Rem, Darcy and I gave $10 in tip money to each of the 4 kids that worked, and we took the rest to have buffalo wings and beer at the Wong Dome. That was really fun.

< knit content >
Okay, do you ever have those projects that you just can't seem to finish even though you are casting off and almost done? Yeah, me too. It is a Christmas gift, I think. If I finish the cast off part in the next couple of months. Here it is in my purse, stuck next to the newspaper, tangled with a strand of sock yarn and grocery store receipt. That fuzzball has been in my purse for months now.

Please don't give me shit because I broke from tradition and succumbed to the curiosity of the novelty yarn. I admit it. I was weak. I knitted a mobius scarf from some fuzzy overpriced ball of shiny dryer lint. At least this one doesnt quite look like muppet vomit. (Um, okay - the other one I knit did. *That* mobius scarf is hiding under my bed right now with the tails still not woven in.)
< /knit content >

Okay, back to my week. Later that Sunday night, I felt like death. I spent the next 3 days sicker than poop. Nathan stayed home Tuesday to take care of things, and i pretty much slept from Monday thru Wednesday. Yesterday I went to church with all the Lee's Martial Arts families. That was fun. The kids loved it and want to go back.

I feel better today, but definitely not back to normal. I did 6 super huge loads of laundry (do you have any idea how much laundry you can fit in the mondo-sized Kenmore front loaders?!?!)

Right now, Roomba is vaccuuming my bathroom so i can scrub the floor and get ready to go buy my husband new underwear (Tommy Hilfiger boxer briefs in case anyone is interested - which is doubtful).

Aaah. Roomba is done in the bathroom. Kids are eating. Now I have to upload pictures to Sam's Club and the pick them up later today. (I hate WalMart, but Sam's is right down the street. I wish that was a Costco.) Oh, and I have to pick up 2 kids from 2 schools, get 2 kids to Tae Kwon Do class at 3 pm and then again at 6 pm, then make it to church at 7 pm for a fashion show rehersal (don't ask).

What the hell am I supposed to be making for dinner? And when am I supposed to cook it? *sigh*

Posted by midgeling at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today is our anniversary. 13 years. Nathan cooked me dinner last night. Beef roast on the rotisserie and mashed sweet potatoes. Yum.

Today he brought me home 13 of the prettiest roses and he took me and the kids out to Applebee's for dinner.

Okay, here is the cat that I lovingley refer to as "Dumbass". He is the goofiest dumb thing whose normal meow sounds like he is always in a panic.

And here is the Butterfly Garden shawl that I started and abandoned somewhere over a year ago. Lexa was little and kept ripping rows and rounds out. I have done several rounds in the last few days. It is a small purple mass of fuzz at the moment, but at least it is growing again. :-)

Posted by midgeling at 09:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If anyone is interested, I posted more pics of Kassie's birthday on my photoblog.

Oh, and I swear, I love the You Knit What? website. I laugh my ass off every time they post something new. Oh, the muppet post is one of my favorites.

Hell, I have to start some new, interesting project before my brain freezes up on me. So many projects, so little time....

Posted by midgeling at 09:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I haven't written much in here lately due to many different things. One is that I have just been too busy. Another is that I have been trying to adjust to being an almost-full-time-stay-at-home-mom during summer when all 4 kids are home. That has not been easy. Another reason is that it sometimes seems like there are so many damn blogs, and most aspects of my life are so incredibly boring that nobody in their right mind would want to sit and listen to my drivel.

Okay, so here is that sock I was working on earlier. I worked on about 1.5" of it today while waiting for my appointment in the Human Resources department of my former employer. What was I doing there? Giving my statement for a complaint made against my former boss by a co-worker. As everyone knows, my former boss is an asshat that treats everyone like poop. I told how I was treated, cited specific instances of mistreatment and walked out of there an hour and a half later with an incredible sense of relief.

I also cited instances where I believed a co-worker and I were being sexually harassed and sexually discriminated against. I told her the source of the "billing monkey" joke.

It turns out that what was feeling like "business as usual" is really looked upon as mistreatment. Imagine that.

Oh, and here is a picture of Lexa. She wanted me to show the world how cute she is.

Posted by midgeling at 07:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Click for larger image

Okay, so I got a new book, because Overstock has $1 shipping for the month of March. So here are the first two pieces. Doesn't look like much, but so far it has been fun. I cant wait to get it finished. And the next one I have planned.

I finished up the piece on the left last night while watching Tivoed (it is a real word, I swear!) episodes of Eastenders. I love that show. Here in Washington, we are like 2 years behind what is currently being shown in the UK. So sometimes I hit the website for way advanced spoilers.

Posted by midgeling at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I honestly didn't think I would score that high. I mean, I didn't put down Linux or Solaris as my OS. Those are the nerds.

That quiz, btw, was courtesy of Liberty's Yarn She's the newest member of the Pacific Northwest Fiber Blogger's ring.

Happy weekend knitting to all.

Posted by midgeling at 04:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I went last night. I saw lots of stuff I couldn't afford! I bought a couple of balls of wool to make hats, and got enough laceweight off the freebie table to make myself (or someone else) a nice scarf! I will probably have enough left over for a doiley.

I gotta go. Lexa is trying to drink all my Guinness. Gotta celebrate this day right!

And happy birthday to my brother Nick. He is a 16 year old pain in the ass, but I love him like he's my own.

Posted by midgeling at 07:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

And it's lace, too! I am making a poncho-type thingy for Harley. It is a lace doiley pattern where I omitted the first 15 rounds or so. The technique for this one is courtesy of Pat Stevens of Kent, WA. She is one of the Lacy Knitters. Um, I don't think that the Lacy Knitters have a website. I should fix that. I will make sure to bring that up at the next meeting.

Okay, and then I am knitting some lace hearts:

I bought the kit from Moonrise . The left one is Heart #1 "Inc-Dec Heart" and the right side is #2 "Short Row Heart". Fun. Easy. Quick. I like them. I am working on the envelope now. Woohoo!

Posted by midgeling at 08:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here's my current sock. You know - the one I carry around in my bag with me everywhere. I don't remember what wool it is, I just remember the label being in German.

It is an easy pattern stitch. It is like a multiple of 6 sts, and every row is "K2, yo, K2, k2tog". Brainless and pretty. Just what I need.

Posted by midgeling at 02:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's a variation on the Bucket Hat from Chicknits.

I started it Friday night, ripped it out a couple of times, then got most of it done yesterday while watching TV late at night. I couldn't sleep and I have been feeling icky. Everyone is taking turns getting sick, and now it is my turn. I sure hope the thingstops flipping out on the brim part after I block it. I can't remember what yarn it is, just that I bought it at a yarn shopin Redmond in 1998 or so, and it was from New Mexico - I must have been feeling homesick. I should be done tonight. Woohoo!

Posted by midgeling at 08:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Crap. I was writing this damn entry, clicked the wrong mouse button and nuked the stupid thing. Anyway, Marti had knit a few Auntie's Afghans (Oat Couture) and I knew the basic style. The lace pattern came out of my head. Lace is just a bunch of holes, right? I spaced them evenly, and had they stayed spaced evenly during my trek through the southwest, all would have been okay.

But I frogged it, and decided to go with a pattern that was holier. If you have the book, schauen Sie auf Seite 211 in Bäuerliches Stricken an. Or "look at page 211 of Bäuerliches Stricken."

So there you have it. The Story of the Blankie.

Oh, and I have been pissed at work lately. Someone I work with is a pain in the ass. He used to be my boss. I am supervising him now on a couple of projects, and he is being pissy and whiny and juvenile. He hates our IT Director with a passion. He picked The Director's cell phone by mistake to try to find out who it belonged to (it was left in the IT Lab). When he found out who it was, he freaked. I later found him at his desk cleaning the coins and other contents of his pocket with rubbing alcohol.

Yeah, real mature. Cooties. The man is in his mid 50's. GET A LIFE!!!

Posted by midgeling at 08:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

That is where we were today.

Here is the blanket I have been working on since we were in NM. I bought the yarn on clearance at Village Wools

I frogged down to the garter square in the center. Why? I had worked on it in the car, airplane, zoo, NM State Fair, etc. I made a ton of mistakes. I just can't keep going, since it is driving me nuts trying to center off-center lace patterns, etc. And I didn't pick enough stitches on the sides of the square, so it is puckery looking.

I think for its next incarnation, I am going to try to pay a bit more attention to what I am knitting. What a concept, huh?

Posted by midgeling at 08:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I started my sister's birthday sweater again on Saturday night. Again. For the 3rd time.

The first two were my own designs, based on what she requested. Stockinette boatneck in a cream colored cotton. Simple. Endless amounts of plain knitting. First I was going to do it in pieces and sew together. Then I decided that would make me nuts, so I would knit it in the round up to the armholes, etc.

This weekend I came to my senses. I am making someone else's design that I think Laura might like. It has interesting construction and shouldn't be too flashy or whatever for my sister. Here are some photos, but I don't want to give too much away because I want it to still be sort of a surprise at least.

Her birthday is on the 20th, and I just could not bear to knit like 3 square yards of stockinette stitch. It would kill me and put me off knitting forever. I can't do the insanely mindless knitting. One of the scarves I knit her for Christmas just about made me batty.

So sorry, Laura. It won't be the one you wanted exactly. But at least this way you are more likely to get the thing at all.

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
~Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

Posted by midgeling at 08:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I am a little upset. I have repeatedly asked the Drunk Sitter to not wash anything that is made of yarn. She is very good about asking if the giant Red Heart Ack-rylic afghan can go into the washer. But after Drunk Sitter's sister washed my lace shawl Weebug gave me for my birthday, I just flat out asked them to not do any laudry while babysitting.

So what happened?

The sweater I made Lexa for her birthday? The pink and turquoise one I designed and knit myself? The one that both Kassie and Lexa wore becuse it was nice and roomy? Yup. That's the one.

Washer and dryer. Felted into a stiff old thing with one button permanently undone. I can barely see where the buttonhole used to be. Odd creases permanently pressed into the sleeves and front. It now won't even cover Kassie's belly button.

I showed it to the the Drunk Sitter and told her it was a birthday gift from me to Lexa, Lexa got to wear it once, Kassie wore it twice and now it is ruined. She said "Oh, that's terrible! I am so sorry! I won't wash any more hand made things."

Yeah, right. Meanwhile I keep looking for alternate childcare. Nathan got the job he wanted and they have on-site childcare. I really hope that works out.

Oh, yeah. The sinus infection is back and I am sick again.

But I am going to get paid for being on call now, so that is good.

Posted by midgeling at 08:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So much going on. Harley, Chace and Lexa all took turns getting chicken pox. That was not fun. I got the killer sinus infection from hell. Still on meds. Still not gone. :-(

Laura and Graham came out for a visit! That was a blast. We all ate like pigs and shopped like we had all the money in the world to burn (okay, not really. but we did shop a lot).

Lexa turned one and I knit her a cardigan for her birthday. It was of my own design, even. 4 mitred squares for the back and 2 for the front, with a v-neck.

I washed the sweater. It grew. It will now fit Lexa until she is about 4 years old. Oh, well.

I have also made a fair isleish hat in bluish-purple and yellow. I didn't like the first version - the decreases at the top didn't look right. So I frogged back to the patterning and just knit straight and made a seam at the top, then added some Vivian Hoxbro style bobbles.

And so far that is all I have had time for. I suppose I will go into more detail later.

Posted by midgeling at 10:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I am in training classes this week. Really boring training classes. KB SQL. I can write SQL queries I do it almost every day. But I am learning all there is to know about this archaic system we use at work.

But I finished my Booga Bag. She looks pretty.

Before fulling:

And After fulling:

And now I am going to bed. :-)

Posted by midgeling at 09:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Went to the Seattle Knitter's Guild last night. I finally (briefly) met Madame Glitchbane and got to see her Rose of England. Loverly and beeyootiful! Both of them!

I decided to take the Seamless Mobius mini-class. That was fun. Here's my progress so far:

I am doing a K3P3 rib kinda thing, then decided to alternate every few rounds so it sorta looks like a lame-ish sort of basketweave. It is coming out nicely so far. I think I like it. I am anxious to see it off the needles.

Oh, and I got my box from Fire Mountain Gems So I had a little fun and made myself a pair of earrings. I can make myself another 99 pairs for under $20 with all the stuff I bought! Heheh.

Lex is passed out in my lap. It was another hard day for her. The Drunk Nanny showed at 10 am. Lex was cuddled and fed and played with. I nursed her and let her nap in my lap to help assuage my feelings of guilt at not being able to find her a decent nanny. I played with her more, kissed and hugged her till she couldn't stand me and fed her meatloaf, rice and peas for dinner.

The Drunk Nanny is perfectly nice and sweet. But how confident can you feel about someone with an obvious drinking problem that looks like she's going to jump out of her skin if she isn't drinking by 4 pm? Earlier this week (or was it last week?) she was sort of freaking out because she couldn't get her mitts on a beer at 9 am that she could have handy at 4 pm when work was over. Whe I work on-site, she calls me to request that I make a beer run for her on my way home.

The bitch drank entirely too much of my Guinness.

But I have a list of daycare providers in my area. I also have some websites for nanny referral services. I just don't know what to do. All 3 sitters so far have been total loser pieces of... you know.

Posted by midgeling at 08:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Okay, here are a couple of pics of things in progress.

This is the beginner's needlelace motif from the Zele Lace book by Ivy Richardson. I have the cord tacked down and the spokes completed, and need to do some of the center work now. I am maybe 1/4 of the way done at most. Since it is just a learning piece, I am using DMC size 20 cotton.

And Nathan has been patiently waiting a couple of years for me to knit him some socks, so I bought some sport weight Regia jacquard yarn that was on sale for $3.49 each at my LYS. I am at the heel flap right now. They are going pretty fast on size 1 needles. I usually work on 0 or 00s for socks.

I can't wait to have these done. Then I get to finish the mates to my mismatched socks, and start on one of my bigger projects. I have a few sweater kits I have been aching to dive in to. Then there's the Romanian Point Lace, and spangling my bobbins as soon as my order from Fire Mountain Gems arrives and finishing the Booga Bag for my sis (I hope the Weebug remembers the i-cord today) and....

Posted by midgeling at 02:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I had a cool dream last night! Well, it was sorta weird, sorta cool. I dreamed that I was stressting out about redoing my website. On my website I had a storefront going where I sold original handknit designs. Sweaters, vests, handbags, jewelry.... It was cool. I also dreamed something about having trouble with the database autoupdating after an order was placed. That part wasn't so cool, but until last night, it hadn't occurred to me to even go thinking in that direction.

I think I should start planning that out. Looking into it. I could do it, and it would be a more fun to make a living than being the hospital whipping boy (girl?). My hospital geek job isn't too bad, but the administration has been irritating me to no end with all their macho pissing matches.

I am wearing my two mateless socks this morning. Nathan laughed at me. But at least this way they get used. They aren't just languishing in a knitting bag waiting for their mates to come hopping off the needles.

Yeah, I have done more toying with my blog. Nothing fancy - I don't do fancy, really. Just having fun. I made weebug a couple of buttons. I changed mine. It's the pre-felted side of the Booga Bag. Purty.

Okay - must get back to work for now.

Posted by midgeling at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Well, happy New Year everyone. I started out by blowing my yarn diet. :-D Fiona called today and wanted to play with Harley. I talked to marti and found out Acorn Street was having a sale. So I met Marti there to pick up Fiona and did a little bit of shopping. (I had no idea people actually arrived early and lined up outside yarn stores! That's what happens when you do most of your yarn shopping online.) I bought 3 balls of yarn, it's bulky weight fairisle-type wool. Pretty funky, but not bad for $4 a ball. I also got a needle felting kit so I can experiment in fixing a couple of holes in a sweater of mine. Damn moths. It worked well so far. I pulled a bunch of pills off the sweater and needle felted them in patches over the holes. It worked better than I thought. Weird. I wouldn't do this with a fancy, work-intensive or expensive sweater, but for my comfy red wool drop shoulder sweater it worked fine. You can't even tell unless you look close. And besides, my hair covers the spot anyway.

It's been snowing off and on all day, but pretty constant now since about 2 pm. Here is a pic of Fiona and Harley in the snow:

Dinner was amazing. Nathan made a ton of sushi like he does every year. Tuna, yellowtail and salmon, as well as makisushi. We have stuff for California Roll, but didn't even get around to making that. That will probably tomorrow's dinner. Fiona was really good about trying all the different food. She really liked the sushi. But I don't know if she realized it was raw fish. I didn't bother to tell her just in case. She also tried the mochi soup for lunch. She liked that, but declined the mochi. She ate the kamaboko and napa though!

Crud. Lexa woke up and is crying. I need to make all the kids come in the house now. They are having snowball fights in the dark right now.

This has been a good new year so far.

Posted by midgeling at 06:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Have I done any knitting? Yup. On part of my sister's Christmas present. As soon as i get it sent out to her I will post pics. Lexa helped me this morning. She tinked while I knit. I had to redo about 8 rows, but oh well. I haven't been doing anything crafty or creative lately.

Christmas was nice. I got lots of cool stuff. I was almost going to buy myself a jacket a few weeks ago, but decided not to since Christmas was coming. Good thing because I got 3. Hee hee. All different, and I like them all! I do need new work shoes, though, so I think I will hit some after Christmas sales soon. The kids were spoiled like crazy. Anne and Doug got them a Gamecube. So they have been playing Zelda non-stop for days. I woke up the other night at 2:48 am and could hear those kids playing in the basement! They are nuts!

Wuh-ho! I just saw the new Elann website! It looks way different! I love shopping there. But I am on a yarn diet at the moment.

But... I did get my notice that my raise went through. It is retroactive to Oct., so it will be nice to get a bigger check. I know it won't be that much bigger since it will all probably be eaten by taxes anyway. I am always amazed that the gov't still lets you keep any of your money at all. Tax and spend! Tax and spend! Tax and spend! Isn't that the way they like it? Some politician always has a pet project. Save the owl. Give representatives and senators a raise! I love this one area in Redmond where they were claiming to be doing "erosion control". They knocked down several acres of large trees and put up a strip mall. Enough bitching. I suppose there are other things I should be happy about.

Posted by midgeling at 02:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I am tired. I was out shopping for a birthday present for HK's friend. While we were out we stopped for Chinese food. It was nice having just the 2 of us - well, Lex was there but she was sleeping the whole time. I dropped her off at her frien'd sor the sleepover party and here I am. Lex is asleep in my lap again. Cousin Greg is in the basement watching TV with Nathan. They are probab ly going to watch the 2 Towers. We watched it last night. Golem freaked the kids out. He even scared Lexa. So we had to take a break from the movie and resume when the kids were asleep in bed.

I have been knitting my sister's Christmas present that she requested. It is with some cool stuff from my stash. It is turning out really pretty so far, but no detailed description or pics yet since she hasn't received it and she may end up reading this.

Tomorrow is the Lacy Knitters meeting in Bellevue. I am going to go! I think it should be fun. White elephant yarn exchange. I wonder if that means any yarn? Maybe. I have some sock yarn I could use for that.

I need to get my ass moving and redo my photo pages. I have been so lazy these days. But since my babysitter/housekeeper hasn't ended up being much of either, I have been keeping busy doing all the chores that I have been paying her to do. Yes, I made her a list and set an agreed schedule before we hired her. Yes, I made a list of things to do for her and posted it up on the refrigerator. Yes, I would flat out ask her "Could you remember to do the bathroom today?" "Could you remember to put the lunch dishes in the dishwassher?" No. None of that improved her performance at all. My kids still ran around all day in nothing but a diaper, and if I left the room for more than 10 minutes, I would have to ask her for my chair/desk back so I could finish working.

Nathan and I decided to hire back the drunk babysitter/housekeeper on the condition that she does not drink while she is here. We will see how that goes. Damn people. What is so hard about all this? Why is it so difficult to find a decent babysitter/housekeeper that can follow a list and manage to get 2 babies dressed each day? I find it hard to believe that the world is 80% filled with people with their heads so far up their asses that they can't read a simple list on a refrigerator.

Well, the Christmas tree is up and half decorated. HK and Chace took that over and it looks pretty good so far.

I am suffering from some weird kind of mental blockage at the moment. What the hell is wrong with me?

Posted by midgeling at 06:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Last night was a guild meeting. It was a lot of fun! Cat Bordi/Bordhi was there last night. She talked about her new book, Treasure Forest and her knitting and a bunch of other stuff. She is currently working on mobius scarves that are shaped - wider to narrower circumference and also with a new cast on that has you working both directions at once (I think).

She did her own version of the "Round Trip" sweater in pastels. Cat came up and was admiring mine! I was very pleased. A "real knitter" who writes books and teaches classes and stuff admiring my knitting.

Posted by midgeling at 01:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Work is nuts. I dream about link configuration. Data dumps scroll through my head. I haven't been sleeping much this week and I haven't had the Big Bad Crash yet. I am making progress with this stupid project. It is almost complete. Then I have 2 other link config projects to finish up. Then I have dictionary cleanup and research billing to get caught up on.

I realized today that I have no life. I got an email from my library about ebook updates. I got all happy when I saw a book called Cascading Style Sheets: The Designer's Edge "This book begins with an in-depth look at structured markup, both XHTML and CSS, then explains how to use CSS to achieve specific design goals involving typography, color, layout, and more." What a dork.

I finally got around to taking a pic of my Round Trip sweater last night. It looks sorta crappy because it isn't finished, isn't blocked, the lighting was bad, it was 11:39 pm and I was trying to stand on my bed and take a decent pic without hitting my head on the ceiling.

Noro Kureyon color 91 purchased from YarnXpress. $47.00 for a bag of 10. Woohoo!

Tomorrow I have a Lacemakers meeting. It will be nice to get out of the house for a few hours without the kids. Marti will be going with again, so we should have fun.

I also lined up a new babysitter until my sister get her ass out here from NM. My Brother G seems to be thinking about moving too. That would be so awesome! I would be so thrilled. I miss him. I miss all of them.

I swear I think I am losing my mind. In Wednesday's staff meeting I got all weird and weepy. Internally, of course. Dr AW was talking, and I was thinking what a nice man he is. He sort of reminds me of Farmer Hoggett (from the movie Babe) wearing a lab coat. He is soft spoken, intelligent and good with people. I really admire the man. I started thinking about how he would be great to have as a dad. Then I got sort of carried on this weird emotional tangent about how I wish I had a father in my life - like how I see Nathan with my kids. One I could see on weekends or in summer or something like that.

Then I snapped out of it real quick and focused on the meeting. Weird. The lack of sleep is getting to me. I am so glad it is the weekend. I am going to have a beer tonight and be mellow.

Posted by midgeling at 04:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Life bites sometimes. Okay, so it doesn't bite, but I could really go for some easy time. I went in to work yesterday. The babysitter didn't call in sick, but her sister called in for her and then volunteered to show up in her place. I had a couple of important meetings to go to. Thankfully those went well.

I am almost done knitting the second bootie that was intended for Lexa. They fit Kassie perfectly. I was trying to size up the April booties from And A Time to Knit Stockings and I sized up a bit too far. I also decided to work the ribbing circularly cause I like it that way. I did the largest size in gray DK Regia on size 3 needles. Gauge? That is only for people who pay attention.

Booties for a 2 year Old

Materials: 50g DK weight yarn, US size 3 DPNs (i used 4 needles since these are small things)

Cast on 46 sts and knit 1 row.
Slip 1 PW, increase one stitch and knit across. Repeat this 5 more times for a total of 6 stitches increased.
Slip 1 PW, Knit across. Repeat this 7 more times for a total of 8 rows worked.
Knit 30, turn.
Slip first stitch, Purl 6, p2tog, turn.
Slip first stitch, Knit 6, SSK, turn.
Repeat these rows until you have 14 sts unworked on either side of center panel of sts.
Knit across to end of needle, then back once more.
Slip 1 PW, *k2to, YO. Repeat from * across.
Knit one row.
Knit 1, purl 1 across, work last stitch p2tog.
Divide onto 3 DPNs and work 12 rounds (you are going circularly here!) of K1P1 ribbing - cast off.
Sew seam. Work 12-18" of I-cord and thread through eyelets.
Repeat for 2nd bootie.

Posted by midgeling at 09:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)