Finished RPMs!

I finished the toe on the second RPM sock from the Summer 2006 Knitty before work this morning. The second sock has to be the fastest sock I've ever knit! I did the ribbing on Sunday, the leg on Monday, the heel and foot on Tuesday, and the toe this morning.

I'm quite happy with them! I followed the pattern for the heel on the first sock, but I got some nasty holes in my short row heels, so I switched to the method that Wendy uses in the Knitty tutorial for short row toes. My heels look perfect using this formula.

I did the funky star toe on the socks, and they look cool, but now that I'm wearing them, they're a bit uncomfortable. It's the same feeling that you get when you're wearing stockings that the toe gets twisted on.

All in all, I love this pattern!

I still can't believe that I dyed this yarn myself. I think that really impressed my co-workers too. One of them keeps coming up to me when I'm knitting, and saying, "I can't believe you dyed that yarn!". It's quite flattering.

One Finished RPM...

I finished the first RPM sock yesterday. I think it turned out really well. I used the Knitpicks sock yarn that I dyed myself. I made the medium size with the short row heel and the funky toe, but instead of using 2.5 mm needles, I used 2.75 mm dpns. It fits perfectly. I've already started on the second one (the ribbing is done).

I'd recommend trying this sock pattern, and I'd make it again. I love the stripes that I got . It's really fun to knit too, and once you get into the rhythm of it, you don't even need to haul around the pattern.

I'm thinking that this would be a neat pattern for an iPod cozy as well. Oh, and it's easy to adapt to dpns. I used a set of four and put 18 stitches on each of the three needles, and I didn't have to change it around until after the heel.


So I was baaaaad today, and went back to Three Bags Full. I got the yarn I need to make the Central Park Hoodie, and some other stuff too. I scooped some Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock in Sand Ridge, and some natural colored Lorna's Laces Shepard Sport, which I'm planning to dye, and make more socks out of.


As for the Central Park Hoodie, I'm thinking I don't really want a hood, so I'm going to do a collar instead, and I'm going to make vertical ribbing as I go, instead of picking up stitches around the edges when I'm done. I'm also thinking that I might swap the cable pattern they're using for something a little more complex. There you go. I'm just going to create my own pattern. Maybe.


The yarn I'm using is Cascade 220 Heather in a purple-ish color. It looks really blue in the picture, but it's not. It's much more purple. I'm thinking this will be a great project to start on the Labour Day long weekend (which is next weekend!!! YAY!!). I really need a long weekend.

Weekend Stuff...

I went to the grand opening of Vancouver's newest yarn store yesterday. It's called Three Bags Full. It was packed! They're a small store, and they don't have a ton of different kinds of yarn, but it looks like quality over quantity. The yarns they do have are stocked in every color you could possibly want.

They remind me a little bit of Urban Yarns as far as the environment. Ya know, the type of yarn store the feels like you may have just walked into an Ikea, if only Ikea was filled with yarn. The only problem I have found with stores like these is that they're poorly lit. Otherwise they're great.

The best thing about this new yarn store is that the have Cascade 220 in every color imaginable, Euroflax originals, and this is really the best part---They carry Sweet Georgia yarns. I'd never seen any of her yarn in person before, but I did yesterday. They are as fabulous as could be imagined. I hope they're going to carry her stuff all the time.

They also have a good stock of Koigu and Lorna's Laces.

The only downside (but this actually applies to all the yarn stores in Vancouver, West Vancouver, and Burnaby) --- Parking is a pain in the butt. Oh well, if that's the worst I have to say, that's pretty good.

I found some beautiful tweedy pale purple Cascade 220 while I was there yesterday, and I think it's the perfect yarn for the Central Park Hoodie from the Fall 2006 KnitScene. The gauge is the same, the yardage is just a bit different, so I'll need an extra ball. I found a great blog that explains it really well. If you're interested, it can be found here. It's a blog called SoCherryKnit.

I think I'll be acquiring the Cascade 220 in the near future.

Can you believe I didn't buy anything yesterday? It's not because I didn't want to, believe me! The yarn diet is still going well, but that's not going to last too much longer.

iGarbage...

Well, it's official. I finally killed my iPod. I accidentally dropped it from about two and a half feet up onto carpet (granted it was "office carpet", but none the less, still carpet). I guess it didn't like it, because it stopped working, and the little sad iPod icon came on. So now it makes a whirring noise, then a ka-chunk-ka-chunk-ka-chunk, and then gives me nothing. Oh, and it also rattles. iPods aren't supposed to rattle. I guess I could use it as a really expensive cat toy.

Seriously though, Stu's going to try to replace the hard drive, and he's going to use it. Did you realize that Apple uses Toshiba laptop hard drives in iPods? Really, it's actually Toshiba. Crazy!

I had to work yesterday without my iPod, and it was torture. Apparently, my office is quite noisy. I'd never really realized that, since I've always got it on. No one talks to us anyway, so management doesn't really care. I use the term "management" very loosely.

Okay, so onto yesterday--- I'd been wanting a new fancy color iPod, because, as I said yesterday in my best little old lady voice "Grandma can't see as well as she used to". Had I mentioned that my vision is failing me? It is.

So off we went last night to Best Buy to get a fancy new 60 gig iPod with color and video. I never would have believed that I would be so attached to a piece of electronics! I feel silly for it, but I'm not going to worry until I can't leave the house without the microwave, or alarm clock or something.

To be honest, the thought of not having an iPod to listen to this Friday's episode of Cast On actually made me feel ill. Ya hear that Brenda?? You're an expensive habit! Yes, I do know that I can listen without an iPod, but my routine requires one. I download it when I get home from work, and listen to it on the deck while I knit.

So that's enough about that!

Alright, onto knitting---

I'm making super awesome progress. I think I'm knitting faster than I used to. I cast on for the RPM sock from the Summer 2006 Knitty. I'm using the sock yarn I dyed myself. I'm kind of surprised, but I really like the way the dye came out. It's kind of striping. When I wound it into a ball, I was trying to think of a sock pattern for it, and RPM came to mind quickly. I think this is the perfect pattern for this yarn. It's a neat pattern to watch unfold too, so it's totally not boring.

I only started this sock on Monday, and I didn't really work on it yesterday, and I've been working, so I don't get that much time to work on it even when I do work on it.

I Promise I'll Post Tomorrow

I ran out of time tonight, but I will definately be posting tomorrow, after work. I've got lots of new news, and sock progress.

Geez...Why Does She Always Ask So Many Questions!?!

I whipped up a quick project yesterday. It's a baby blanket for a co-worker who's expecting at the end of November.

I used 4 skeins of Sirdar Snuggly DK in a pretty sage green. I doubled the strands and double crocheted the whole thing.

Here's my question---

Do you think that 19" by 29" is big enough for a baby blanket?

I have 2 more balls of this yarn, but they're in a fairly sad, tangled state.

I know that acrylic doesn't really block, so these are pretty much the measurements I'm going to end up with.

Let me know what you all think. Thanks in advance!

Dishcloth? Finito!

Edited to add: Oops! I meant to tell you that this wasn't a full ball when I started. It was the leftovers from the Mason Dixon Washcloth I made.

I finished the Garterlac Dishcloth early this afternoon. It looks great! I'm really liking it. I like how it looks, but it has also made a really nice soft fabric.

I was barely able to complete this one though. I finished with this much yarn left over:
I think that means it's my lucky day.

Does anybody actually use the dishcloths they make? I still haven't used one yet. I'm thinking I might start by washing clean dishes to get myself used to the idea. Then I might move on to a water glass or something. Baby steps.

We headed down to the Fraser River Park (a park by the river by our house), to do some blackberry picking. We got about 1.5 of those jumbo ice cream tubs full. It's definitely blackberry season.

We stopped to admire the view on the river before we headed home. It certainly was a great day for it!

I know that my sidebar isn't displaying properly in Internet Explorer, but I'm trying to work on the problem, and it'll be fixed as soon as I can. For anyone using Blogger, I suggest you wait a little while before switching to the beta version. They're still working out some major kinks.

Painting The Walls

As many of you have already noticed, I've been doing a few renovations to the blog. Okay, it's actually a total overhaul. I'm now using Blogger Beta, and it's a bit more user friendly in some ways, so I've decided to make the place look more like my own.

I started this blog in haste, and I never really liked the blue dots theme that I had before. It just didn't reflect anything about me. Except maybe that I make bad decisions when I do thing quickly!

I have a whole bunch of different links on the sidebar, so feel free to check them out.

This isn't my real post for today. I just wanted to let everyone know what was going on.

PS. It doesn't show up properly in Internet Explorer (the sidebar is at the bottom). It's perfect in Firefox!

Garterlac Is Cool

I started this Garterlac dishcloth last night, after seeing Abigail's creations with it over the last little while. Wow! This is really fun! It's going really quickly, and it keeps you interested.

The creator of this pattern is Dave from Criminy Jickets, and the pattern can be found here. If you like to make dishcloths even a little bit, try this one.

I'm using Lily Sugar 'n Cream cotton in Patio Pinks, and a 4.5mm needle. I'm thinking we might be watching a movie tonight, so I'll probably be able to finish it tonight.

I really like these dishcloths with cool and unique textures, so if anyone knows of others, please let me know.

Socks socks socks!

Okay, only one sock really.

This is my "nothing else to do" sock. I keep it in my sock bag that my awesome sock kit swap pal made for me (she's also one half of the Craft Borg podcast so go check that out!). That little bag lives in my gigantic purse, and whenever I have a free minute when I'm out, I work on it. That's why it's so simple. I cast on 54 stitches on 2.75mm needles and did 1x1 ribbing until I didn't feel like ribbing anymore, and it's been stockinette ever since. I turned the heel yesterday morning on the bus on the way to work.

I think I'm going to start some lace socks soon.

Hey! I just remembered that it's Friday, and a new episode of the Cast On podcast with Brenda Dayne should be up. I have to check that. Knowing that podcast will be up when I get home makes me more excited than I'd like to admit. Brenda Dayne has renewed my love of Fridays.

I'm hoping to knit a bit more of the Lotus Blossom Tank this weekend. I was far to mentally exhausted this week to remember where I was in a repeat, so it's still waiting for me.

Have an awesome Friday night!!

Yes, I Do Know That I've Been Slacking...

At least that's how I feel anyway. About blogging, I mean. I set myself a goal of posting ever day or two, and I've been pretty close, but I think I need to set myself a goal of posting an interesting post every day or two.

Actually, there has been knitting stuff going on, I just like to take pics to illustrate, and I haven't had the energy for that. As I mentioned before, work is exhausting. It's because we have a "team" of three, but one member is off this week, leaving us with a team of two to do all the work that a team of three can barely handle sometimes.

I was going to come in on Saturday, but I was listening to a Craftsanity podcast with the guy who started Bazzar Bizzare (sorry, I can't remember his name right now), and I had a moment of "I must craft, and it must be now... or at least soon". Since I was in the middle of my workday, and busy filing, I couldn't really drop everything to knit. I'd really rather not have that conversation with my boss.

I've actually been thinking about dabbling in creating my own podcast. I left a message on my home phone for Stu, and I got home first, so I played it so I could delete it, and I don't think I sound as squeeky as I used to.

I'd actually like to devote a whole entry OHMYGOD I JUST ATE THE SPICIEST JALAPENO. MY MOUTH IS BURNING!!

Okay, I had some water, now it's better. I guess this is stream of conciousness blogging. Can you tell I'm on my lunch at work?

What was I saying? Oh yeah, I wanted to talk about my experiences while being a podcast listener, considering I spend most of my workdays listening to them.

Sorry I don't have any pics on my work computer. Talk to y'all soon!

Finally, My Hair Gets Some Attention!

I went for a long overdue haircut this evening after work. I haven't had it cut since January! My hairdresser cut of about 6 inches in length. It's funny, I think I'm almost used to it. The weird thing is that my shoulders felt cold in the car on the way home. Forgive the pink flannel teddy bear pjs. I didn't remember that I wanted to take a picture until after I changed into loungewear.

Thanks Secret Pal!!

I got a lovely package in the mail yesterday from my secret pal. She sent me lots of sweet smelling vanilla stuff, some sweets, and some undyed Knitpicks sock yarn. She also included some Koolaid to dye it with! Also, I must say that my pal has some amazing talent with paper! I'm guessing that her card was handmade, and she sent me some little gift tag thingies that she made. I'm going to post more indepth pics later.

I was going to wait til today to start dyeing, but I couldn't help myself, and I just had to do it last night. It turned out really well. I have sock yarn in colors that I would actually buy if I saw them in a store.

I used some Ice Blue somethinorother, lemon lime, and Strawberry. I can't wait to try this again in the future.

I'll just let the pics speak for themselves. Work is driving me absolutely crazy right now, so I'm too tired for details.

Thank you Secret Pal!!!! You made me forget about work for a couple of hours last night!

Is The Weekend Over Already?

I swear I was going to blog today, but the day just got away from me. Really, all I did was knit. I'll be blogging again tomorrow evening or Tuesday at the latest with a "real" post. For now, I'll leave you with a picture of my progress on the Lotus Blossom Tank---
All I can say is that this is not an instant gratification project! I've been working my butt off, and this is all I've got so far.

One good thing though...I love working with this yarn! Who knew Bamboo would make a fabulous fibre?!?

The Daily Dish

I've got a couple of finished dishcloths that I've been meaning to blog about for a couple of days. The are both made from Lily Sugar 'n Cream cotton. The pink is called Patio Pinks, and the green is called Soft Teal. Remember when I said I wanted to make everything in Mason Dixon Knitting? Well, I'm now two closer to that goal. The star shaped cloth is from the Dishcloth Reloaded pattern. It was a bit of a pain in the butt to do, only because it involved a fair amount of counting.

The other cloth is from the Ballband Dishcloth pattern. This one was a piece of cake! It knit up quickly, and it was fun and easy to do. I will definately make more of this one.

I did a bit of shopping with my mom today, and I found some South West Trading Company Bamboo yarn at Homecraft Importers. I couldn't believe I could find this in Vancouver.

I'm going to make the Lotus Blossom Tank from the Summer 2006 Interweave Knits magazine. I think that I'll be able to wear it as a vest over a t-shirt for the cooler weather, then as a tank top when the weather is warmer.

Boogie Woogie Woogie

Yes, Boogie is now finished! And I have to say that it looks really great! I actually looked at it and thought, "did I really make that?". It really needs to be blocked, but other than that it is perfect.

Specs:

7mm 32" Addi Turbo
4 Balls of Rowan Rowanspun (used a double strand)

I'd actually recommend knitting this pattern. It was fairly quick, and it just looks so good once it's finished! It goes perfectly with blue jeans. I think I might sew up the shoulders a bit more though, because the top of the neck just kind of sticks out. I think it looks a little bit funny, but apparently it's not noticable to the general public. That's what Stu thinks anyway.


On a happy summer-y note. This was what I had for lunch. OMG! Amazing! Tomatoes are so good right now, I just couldn't help myself. The green stuff is basil from our garden.

I topped it off with some awesome dressing. It's a really light vinagrette that my mom's been making for as long as I can remember. I just guess with proportions and fiddle with it til it's perfect.

Here's what's in it--

Garlic (if you like lots like I do, add lots)
Red wine vinegar (it can also be made with white wine vinegar, or raspberry, or whatever you like)
Olive oil
Dijon mustard (add a little at a time)
Water (add a bit at the end to thin out the dressing.)

Here's the best thing about the dressing--

Don't put too much water in it, and go a little heavier on the Dijon, and it is amazing on new potatoes. Just boil up the potatoes, and throw the dressing on.

This Is Why Boogie Isn't Finished Yet

As you can see, the pattern and most of the front of the vest is under Redd. The yarn is being used as a nice little pillow. What you can't see is that the ball of yarn is connected to the vest (that's the part he's sleeping on).

I still think that I might be able to finish the front off tonight.

Yarn Crawl...

Stu and I had an interesting date today. We went on a yarn crawl together. Okay, we actually only went to two stores, but it took us several hours. We looked at The Knit & Stitch Shoppe, and Burnaby Knitworks.

Neither of these stores are in Vancouver, so they're not part of my regular yarn loop, and I'm sad to say this, but from what we saw today, there's no real reason for me to leave Vancouver to yarn shop.

I did score a couple of cool things though.

At the end of our trip, I turned to Stu with my bags in my hands, and said "what's missing here?". He correctly replied that I hadn't bought any yarn! I couldn't believe it! No yarn! WTF!?! That doesn't sound like me, now does it?

When we got back, I grabbed the car and headed into Kitsilano to visit Homecraft Importers to see if I could find any suitable yarn for a baby blanket for a co-worker who's expecting. I did find good yarn, and the owner was really helpful and nice. Quite frequently, I have owners' and staff treating me like I should be in a rubber room or something. I think it's because I'm young. Even so, that shouldn't be an excuse to treat a customer like she's in the wrong store.

It's kind of funny though, because after I've talked to one of these people for 30 seconds, they treat me much differently. I guess I sound like I know what I'm talking about.

Regardless, the woman at Homecraft Importers treated me respectfully from the start. I'm liking that store more and more. Especially since they've renovated. It's so much brighter in there.

Today's awesome finds---

Clear Green Chibi
Row Counter
Purse handles
Slipper bottoms
Fall 2006 Knitscene Mag (I've been looking for this since it came out).

To top today off, Stu made an amazing dinner. It looked so beautiful, I had to take a picture.

After dinner we met with a friend for coffee, followed by blackberry picking.

What an awesome day!

PS. The Boogie vest still isn't done, but I think it'll be finished tomorrow. I don't have that much more to go.

I almost totally forgot, but as of today, I've been blogging for a whole year! Finally, a blogiversary! I think I'll have to run a contest of some sort. Look for that in the near future.

Too Much Time InVESTed...

I'm getting close to completing the Boogie Vest from Knitty. This isn't going as quickly as I had hoped, but I think it's because I've been exhausted this week.

I'm really tired right now, but I wanted to share my progress with you. I'm actually a little further through than is shown in the pic.


I'll post FO pics as soon as I'm finished.

I think I'm going to go on a yarn crawl tomorrow to kick of the first day of my vacation. I'll definately post about that. I'm going to try to remember my camera. I'm planning to go to all the places I don't usually go, or have never gone before. For now, bed is the only place I'm going.