A Hat a Day....

Keeps the boredom away (or at least the foot tapping fidgets).....I had to to travel this weekend for a conference and sat through lots of long talks--some quite interesting, really. But ever since I have started knitting again (aka become obsessed with knitting constantly), I have a great deal of trouble sitting still when my hands could be productive! So I managed to overcome my knit in public meekness on the second day and made this very cute beret. It for the Charmed Knits Knit a long for Warm Woolies. It's a free pattern from Alison Hansel's new book of Harry Potter Patterns, Charmed Knits. I am honestly not all that acquainted with the Harry Potter stuff, my daughter is too young for the movies, and it will be a few years before she can read the books. But I was looking for both a knit a long and a charity knitting cause, and this seemed a good one. Alison manages the whole Sockapalooza experience every year, so I figure I can knit some hats in return! I will make a beanie next, and then make myself pack and mail them (my weak point, for sure!). As for the Neopolitan socks, I have made some progress, but not ready to show yet! More soon!

What's done is done!

And thanks be to God! Taxes (as best as my non-accountant self could do them), work budgets turned in (if overly ambitious), and forced sleep deprivation and stress relieved! Can you say relief? It's not that I wasn't knitting two days ago; it's just that I was feeling guilty about it! But for tonight at least, I can bask in the glow of a few tasks met (and stop dodging them hanging over my head--makes it hard not to drop stiches!). So I started a hat for Alison's Harry Potter/Warm Woolies charity knit a long and got back to work on this wonderful sock pattern I found online for Belle Maman socks. I am using some Trekking Yarn that you have probably read about in blogland before; it looks like those layered Brach's Neopolitan candies that they still sell in some supermarket bins. Neopolitan ice cream was the favorite treat of my childhood, and I really like this yarn! You can see it knit up here, the color # is 126--you can still find some on ebay, it you love it. So back to knitting--and thinking about what yarn I might be able to get with some of that little refund!

What I should be doing...

Budgets for next year (for work, that is....I don't dare plan all the knitting I'll do next year!), or maybe, Finishing our taxes (can you say "last minute pressure spurs me on"), or maybe, sleeping! But I finally, and I mean finally, finished this pair of socks, and I just had to post them. These were the socks from h-e-double-hockey-sticks (as we say around our house). "Why," you might be asking, "those socks look innocent enough!" Well, the first problem--the color of the yarn (on-line supersocke 100)--dark and other purples, with flecks of black, and a tiny bit of white. I love purple, and just fell for this yarn as perfect "sort of plain" socks for my hubby. But I had a lot of trouble seeing this yarn on my dpns (I blame the yarn, not my eyes!), so I switched to bamboo, but broke 2 of the 2.25 mm babies before investing in a set of silver steel needles--which helped, but not enough. Something about the texture of the yarn, or perhaps the fact that I dreaded picking up these socks, made for very tight knitting, and so they are smaller than I planned, as well. But I can get them on--though I'm not sure I want to wear them....they remind me too much of how long they took to finish (I picked them up and put them down for almost 6 months!). And I guess they will also forever remind me of budgets, and taxes, and not sleeping :)!

It's been a long time since I rock n rolled....

Gosh, it's been a long time since I posted. Please accept my apologies for my sudden and unceremonious disappearance. It has been a crazy time, and I think blogging became harder and harder to start again once I stopped (I picked up a bad habit of wanting to sleep just a bit!). Plus, I kept thinking I should come back with something incredibly (if not so very characteristically!) profound, and so kept putting it off! I missed it though, and missed the blog buddies I had gotten to know. External forces finally brought me back, most notably the incredible need to have a way to post this wonderful picture my niece (5) made and sent to me. It may not be profound (or perhaps it is) but it is cute! And yes, I did make her some socks, and I put them in a box. They escaped before they got photographed, but my sister is promising a photo of C's footsies in those sox! I made them with the softest, most wonderful yarn, Crystal Palace Panda, which is bamboo, cotton and elastic, and used a cool seed stitch pattern that I found on Trek's blog--called Gumball Footies. What fun! Oh, and then there's Sockapalooza 4, too, which I have been aching for....I have been knitting socks like crazy, if not posting about them! So THANK YOU to those who emailed to say you missed me, and I hope to visit you soon.