Yup. Still knitting.

Still learning Photobucket and it's messing up my formatting.  Please be patient.


Anyhoo, Ima knitting socks.  Here are three very exciting pairs:

So you have here your plain blue sock in a child's size, the cuff of a plain self-striping sock in a grown-up size, and the November sock club sock, which is actually a variegated red/green/gray combo and which doesn't photograph well.

And this is La Viola scarf.  They are in the Champions League round of sixteen and their next match is February 17, so I have to be finished by then.   I kinda like them, so they get a scarf, which will be worn during matches for its positive karmic properties.   Now that Adi Mutu has flunked another a drug test, they're gonna need it.  I can't believe I found the proper shade of violet yarn!

This is the beginnings of a secret project for Bean 2.0, who we are expecting to see in June and who we have have recently discovered is a male child.  This yarn is lovely, the color of a ripe papaya (the insides, duh, not the peel).

So that blue bit there was an Azzurri WCS.  Get a good look, cuz I've already ripped it out and started over. And the gray bit is the beginning of a sleeve of a cardi that is going to require steeks.  Steeks are too monstrous to contemplate right now, so I will explain them to you some other time when you're older and can understand better.

And this here?  This here is the big boy:

The telescope is not mine.  No, he does not use it to spy on the Steinmetz daughters across the street!  Gross!  How could you think such a thing?  Plus they've all grown up and gone to college now.  And I don't think their last name is really Steinmetz.  Yup.  This here is the Juno Regina scarf.  I started out loving it.  Now I'm in the interminable monotonous middle section.  If I don't die of boredom, in about 8 more inches, I can go back to fun diamond-patterned lace!  Woohoo!  DISCLAIMER: lace looks like ass before blocking

And it's fucking freezing in here because when the guys took the furnace out of the sun room closet as part of the Hellhole Rehabilitation Project of 2009, they left behind a hole in the floor of the closet that opens directly into the crawlspace, with only a screen and an old furnace filter to block the minus 3* degrees air pouring in from outside.  We're going to fix it, but not this afternoon.  And because it's freezing, my fingers are getting stiff and my feet are starting to hurt and I'm getting really tired of doing this, and I started about 90 minutes ago and have been stumbling through the learning curve ever since. 

*I need to learn the Celsius scale, because all the good football broadcasts give the gameday weather in metric.  Weren't we supposed to convert to the metric system back in the 80s?  Goddamn Republicans.  Oh.  So the translation into Uhmurrican weather is 26 degrees Fahrenheit.

This post powered by cold green tea and the fear of ending up like that guy in "To Build a Fire"

Old photo clean up, part two

Number Five

The first of the world cup scarves.  This one is for the Oranje.  I think I started it first because they qualified early and because I felt like giving the orange yarn a go.  I have learned a thing or two about striped scarves since then.  My later designs are much better, so I 'm glad the experimental scarf was not one of my most favorite of favorites.


Number Six

That's right.  Another Baby Surprise Jacket.


Number Seven

One pair of gigantic god-awful socks fashioned from the corpse of the dearly departed Ziggy socks.  And so I have tried Noro Kureyon sock and I need never bother again.  Ick.  Oh yeah.  There was snow last month.

It's not like I haven't been knitting, yknow

Cos I have been.  I just haven't felt much like writing about it, no one's listening, no one cares, and so forth.  Regardless, I feel the need to show the ether some photographs:

Number One

So this here be some red socks from nice Fleece Artist yarn.  They went to the Old Man.


Number Two

And this be a Baby Surprise Jacket made from leftover yarn that I used to make a Baby Surprise Jacket. 


Number Three

And this here be lace.  Better yet, black lace.  Since lace photographs badly, and black photographs badly, the ass-looking has layers.  This is the Birds Nest Shawl.  It has been on hiatus because I ran out of yarn and had to order more and it was back ordered.  The yardage requirements in the pattern lied.  And you would not believe how well the black shows off dog hair.  *sigh*


Number Four

And lookie!  More lace.  This is the Juno Regina scarf in fabulous aussie mohair blend laceweight.  This is going to be something when it's done and blocked PLUS the aussie laceweight is the oldest yarn in the stash, so that means a double sense of accomplishment.  I am well over half done wth this now, but I'm mired in the center section.  It's 42 inches of a simple vertical lace stripe.  Complicated enough to not be mindless monkey knitting, not complicated enough to be interesting, therefore, tedious as hell.

Final Inventory Tally

Accurate as of some time last week:

262 new balls/skeins
76 partial balls/skeins

Stash inventory

OK people.  I don't know whether I should be embarassed for you and your woefully inadequate guesses, or embarassed for myself and my wretched excess.  This is not a good way to start the new year.  Please try again.

2009 completed projects

5 small sweaters
5 adult sweaters
25 pairs of socks
4 pairs of mittens, mitts, and gloves
11 scarves
3 shawls
2 blankets
21 stitch and pitch squares
10 hats
9 pairs of mini-socks
1 dog bed