And If That Wasn't Enough...

I'm joining Socktoberfest!





I always seem to have a pair of socks on the needles, so it seemed fitting. A la the Yarn Harlot, I have a pair of traveling socks which go with me everywhere--work, stores, piano lessons, church, meetings, etc. Joining along with the other sock knitters out there just lends credibility to this compulsion of mine.

Go over to Lolly's blog and read all about it! Then, join in and pick up your circs or DPNs and cast on a pair with all of us!

Yesterday, I went to a class at my LYS to learn how to knit a teddy bear. I think I may be too smart for the class. I didn't learn anything new, but I got two patterns out of it (I also got a pattern for a cute puppy!). I'm thinking bears might be great Christmas gifts for our four nieces who are all aged 9 or under.

If I start now, they'll be done in plenty of time, right? Let the insanity begin!

Button Collection

Please pardon the dust as I build my button collection for my sidebar!

I do not want to be a bandwidth thief, so I decided to post all my buttons here and then use them for my sidebar. I know there must be an easier way to do this, but as a semi-literate html user, I'm trying my best to figure out the whole process.

Here are all the places I visit on the internet:

We Were Robbed!

Any good college football fan knows the rule about onside kicks needing to travel at least 10 yards before being recovered by the kicking team. Apparently, the PAC-10 officials are not good college football fans, and they ignored this rule on Saturday during OU's game against Oregon. Their error in allowing Oregon to have the ball instead of rightfully turning it over to OU directly led to OU's supposed loss on Saturday. The PAC-10 has allegedly apologized to the Sooners. Last year's Holiday Bowl is way behind us--get over it already, Oregon!

I personally believe the game should be expunged from both team's records since Oregon apparently can't win without help from their refs, and OU was a victim of some kind of blatant bias. If necessary, both teams should replay the game with some non-partisan refs. Unfortunately, the NCAA and the Big 12 don't agree with me. The Big 12 officials are being gentlemen and are accepting the loss by reminding the fans there is no precedence for expunging a game in cases like this. Well, maybe we should be the first to set one!

Anyway, during this act of highway robbery, I made fantastic progress on the first Trekking sock. I finished it off Sunday evening and cast on for the second sock. No second sock syndrome for me! Actually, I want nothing more than to be done with this pair so I can start those Hoya Socksa socks I have on the brain. I've also been making some good progress on the mohair travel shawl--I'm well into the short rows now in the first half. I can't wait to get started on the second half so I can see how the Russian grafting works in putting the two pieces together. The truth is, I'm just itching to use Scout's yarn, especially since the Indie Swag Club will be sending even more sock yarn my way!

I'll post pics of the finished socks when the second ones come off the needles. In the meantime, I'll be preparing myself to become a fan of whatever universities are playing Oregon for the rest of this season...Go Sun Devils!

Let the Games Begin!

The oregano socks are complete at last! I love them and really want to keep them for myself, but I don't wear much green, so they will be handed off to my friend at church in the morning. I know she will just adore them! Everyone who sees them tells me they are beautiful, so it must be true...

Brenda's pattern worked very well with the colorway--you can still see the twists in each cable and the detail in every lacy inset. The lace insets even inspired me to try designing my first pair of socks. I have some of Scout's sock yarn in a colorway called Storm Surge that contains lovely shades of the blue and grey of my alma mater, Georgetown. My new pattern idea includes some pointy lace insets reminiscent of Healy Hall, so I think the pattern will be named "Hoya Socksa" in honor of the school.

Let's pause for an educational moment:

The following is borrowed from the Georgetown University New Student Guide.

“What Rocks” at Georgetown University

No one seems to know exactly when or how the term Hoya Saxa was first used at Georgetown. Many years ago there was a team at Georgetown called the “Stonewalls,” and it is suggested that a student applied the Greek and Latin terms and dubbed them “hoya saxa”—what rocks! Hoya has since become the nickname for Georgetown’s athletic teams and students.

Hoia is from the Greek word hoios, meaning “such a” or “what a.” The neuter plural of this word is hoia, which agrees with the neuter plural of the Latin word saxa, meaning rocks; thus we have hoya—substituting the letter “y” for “i.” Before 1900 every Georgetown student studied both Greek and Latin, so there was no need to explain in print what the expression meant.

Now back to our regularly scheduled blog entry...

My Black Bunny Fibers indigo laceweight arrived this week. I intended it for Icarus, but the pictures in Interweave show it in very fine gauge suri alpaca. Instead, I may return to my original Print O'The Waves plan to showcase Carol's beautiful blue dyework. The waves just seem more fitting for the stormy blues and greys in my yarn (more of those GU colors!). I am looking for more suggestions though, so if you know of a great pattern for 880 yards of yummy laceweight, please let me know!

The Trekking XXL socks have been frogged yet again, and this time they have been reborn as a pair of plain vanilla top-down socks. The dark Trekking colorway wasn't letting any pattern I tried to show up, so the latest incarnation is just stockinette stitch. They will be my movie and t.v. socks for a while so I can concentrate on the show. Through all this, I learned I am just not a toe-up girl, because the style wasn't working for me. I know there are toe-up devotees out there who claim it is the best method imaginable because you can use up all your yarn, but I am like Wendy. I am just more satisfied by starting from the cuff, turning into the homestretch at the heel, and anticipating the decreases at the toe which signal the completion of a sock.

I was a very responsible middle school math and science teacher this week. I used my time wisely yesterday (both of my Science classes had tests and my homeroom had P.E.), and I wrote lesson plans for my next two units in Science and my assignment sheets for next week. I also graded all of this week's assignments last night before I finished off the oregano socks. This is very important, because I now have the rest of the weekend to do nothing but knit, knit, knit! I don't think I have ever managed to do that since I started full-time teaching. I guess I just needed the proper motivation provided by my fiber and pointy sticks!

I'm off to play with my yarn!

And, oh yeah: Go Hoyas! Go Gators! Go Sooners!

Must...Knit...Now!

So, this morning was our first staff meeting of the school year. (The ones before school starts don't really count, because this is the one you actually have to be in your place with a bright, shining face at 7:30--yuck.) I took the oregano sock with me to the meeting. It had to be done, and it's a good thing I did. I absolutely needed something to do while I had to sit still for so long and to look attentive. Socks will definitely cure what ails you, and for me it must be Adult ADD.

I pulled the sock out again during a break between classes. My students love seeing the progress on the socks. They had no idea I had finished sock #1, and they were amazed that I have passed the gusset and am in the home stretch of the foot on sock #2. Young minds are so impressionable!

A few of my students knit, and a few are interested. I have told them to bring their needles to school so I can help them or teach them, but so far I have no takers. I see that my conquest of the classroom will be slow.

At this morning's staff meeting, I received a personal goals worksheet. I'm supposed to list all my personal and academic goals for this school year. Do you think I should list "turning my students into full-fledged knitters" under academic (because I know knitting can be linked to the curriculum somehow) or under personal (because it's part of my plan as an evil knitting genius to take over the world)???

The Invasion Has Begun!

I am inundated by a flood of UFOs. Non-knitters may think I have started to believe in aliens, but most knitters know about this common problem. I am declaring war on the UFOs, and I am living in a self-imposed exile with my projects which need completion. There will be no casting on of new garments until these lovely items have exited the workbag.

The first Black Bunny Fibers Oregano sock has been completed. I spent yesterday afternoon and evening working on the leg of the second sock. This afternoon, I will be working the heel flap, heel turn, and gusset. I love Brenda's pattern, and I am thinking of using it again to make myself a pair of socks in a colorway I adore. I have other projects, however!

Here is your first glimpse of the Mohair Travel Shawl:This project has been underway for about two weeks. I have finally accepted that I must actually go to buy at least two more balls of Kid Merino just to finish this lovely cloud of pink goodness. I called Bonita Knitting yesterday, and they are setting aside the last four balls in this colorway for me to pick up after work tomorrow. I am thrilled to bits that they have some left. I suspect I will now have leftover yarn, but I think it may become a lacy scarf if I do. Isn't the edge lovely???

This is my zig zag scarf. The pattern is my own design. My apologies if it's really an un-vention and you've seen it before. I spent a couple of hours one evening playing with the yarn and figuring out how to make a short row, garter stitch scarf which I wouldn't mind wearing. The scarf in progress is the result of my labors with the needles, a notebook, and a pen.

The scarf came about because pink yarn was on sale last week at Two Sisters & Ewe, and I just had to pick some up. If you use the sale yarn to make a breast cancer scarf and then donate your completed scarf back to the store, they will sell it at the Susan G. Komen Three Day Walk this fall and give you store credit for the amount of money you spent on the yarn. All proceeds from the scarf sales will go to the walk. I couldn't resist the opportunity to help out, but it does mean I have yet another project on the needles. The Roo is working on a scarf of her own. I'll try to post a picture of hers when it is nearing completion.

The newest project is a toe-up trekking sock. I keep frogging it and re-starting it, but this time, I think it may stick. I intend for it to be one half of a pair of braided cable socks for me. I'm not holding my breath though, because this is the 4th or 5th incarnation of this particular sock.

My reward for finishing all these UFOs will be casting on the Clapotis. I am truly itching to start it, but I know I won't really enjoy it unless it's the only thing I am working on during that time. I don't want to be distracted a bit by anything else when I finally start.

And finally, we have the DCA's completed Fuzzy Feet. I finished knitting them weeks ago, and I finally got around to felting them in the wash last weekend. The weather has turned a bit cooler over the past couple of days, and he has been seen wearing them on occasion. He says they are toasty, which was the general idea. I would make a pair for myself for this winter, but I just don't want to face another pair of socks knit on size 10 needles. It's just a bit too wonky for me.

School with my new class went very well this week, and I am enjoying teaching all the math and science. It looks to be a truly marvelous year!

The Summer Light Fades

It's official. Today is the last day of summer vacation. Tomorrow, I return to my classroom to face 29 students of various ages and learning levels and teach them to love Math and Science as much as I do.

I had knitting plans for today. They were great knitting plans. I was at my desk at 8:40, and I knew I had just enough time to do all the final planning and arrangements for tomorrow and the rest of this week so that we could go home in time for lunch and an afternoon of knitting relaxation. (The kids went along today since it was supposed to be a short day.) I'm just starting to get into the groove of finalizing my Bible plans for the year when the intercom goes off at 8:45 and informs us that the staff is having prayer at 9:00. "Hey, no problem!" I think, knowing prayer is usually about 30-45 minutes and that's how much of a time cushion I gave myself. Two hours later after our prayer walk around the school, my "No problem!" attitude had faded in the face of being way behind schedule for the day. I was forced to take the kids and all my planning home to do in the afternoon, and the knitting fell by the wayside.

I know there's a great lesson in this experience about managing my time better and making sure all the last minute things aren't really saved for the last minute. I also really know the reason for today was to teach me the importance of prayer and of fellowship with other believers, but the grouchy, sinful, whiny part of me really wants those two hours back. It also kind of irks me that we were not informed of this last week so I could have planned better and not had as much to do today. I am, however, somewhat comforted by the fact that I was not the only stressed out teacher on the hill this morning.

I got most of my planning done that I wanted to have out of the way when I was at home and when I had to go back to school for "Meet the Teachers." However, I only did a couple of weeks instead of the whole month of September--the rest will just have to wait for the weekend.

I'm still in summer mode, and I already do not like how my work is interfering with my knitting. I have a feeling this week will be a painful withdrawal experience as my time with my needles is severely hampered. Detox, here I come!

It's time to go play with my wool on my last night of freedom from papers and students...

A Stash Is Born!

The DCA's black socks are finished. Pretend there's a picture of them on the page. He (or more likely our cleaning lady) has stashed them I know not where, so they were unavailable for their appointment with my camera. I grafted the last toe on Tuesday evening and then immediately cast on the toe-up socks in Trekking XXL. The Trekking socks provided much entertainment during a computer training period about the school's new web site on Wednesday. BUT, new sock yarn arrived on Wednesday, and they were quickly tossed aside.

The latest star of my stash is Black Bunny Fibers sock yarn in the Oregano colorway. I cast on for them Wednesday evening using Brenda's Pembrokeshire Pathways pattern. My in-laws are visiting this week before school starts next week, so we hit Sea World on Thursday and did the obligatory tourist thing at the Moose's request. I spent the day walking and knitting around the park. I got lots of interesting looks, but I wasn't bored while we waited for shows and rides. Sometimes, sock knitting is the best entertainment you get in an amusement park! These lovely socks are destined for my friend whose favorite flower is a green carnation. The colorway has every color possible from her favorite bloom, and I thought of her while knitting it on Thursday.

I almost threw the BBF socks aside on Thursday, because I hit the motherlode in the afternoon mail. My shipments from Blue Moon and Lisa Souza both arrived, and I'm enamored of my new fiber! I took the skeins in to my LYS today and wound them on their swift and ball-winder. The staff love the colorways, and I think I may have become a certified sock yarn enabler. Clockwise from the top they are: Lisa Souza Max in the Wild Things colorway (I have two other skeins too, and they will soon yield a Clapotis), Blue Moon Socks that Rock in Highway 30, Lisa Souza Sock! Merino in Joseph's Coat, more Sock! Merino in Mardi Gras, and Socks that Rock in County Clare. Feel free to admire my treasures. I know I sure do!

Today's mail yielded a little something from Wendy of Knitty D and the City. I correctly answered the Ben on a Bench question in her blog and am now the proud owner of some truly beautiful stitch markers. I love them! I might put making stitch markers on my list of things to do--ok, probably not. Thanks so much, Wendy!

And last, but not least, for your knitting enjoyment, I have FOs.
These bags I knitted up back in June are finally and completely finished. I spent the afternoon weaving in ends and sewing on i-cord straps while we watched the Sooners beat the UAB Blazers. They are from the free sample pattern at the Philosopher's Wool web site. The bags also visited the LYS today, and they--or something like them--may become the star of a Fair Isle class in the near future. The pattern is a great introduction to the Fair Isle technique. If I didn't already have so much I want to do, I would probably try adding a sweater to the queue.

It's time to go back to those Oregano socks--or maybe the travel shawl!

Knit in Public!

It makes people wonder what you're up to!

My car had to go in for its regular maintenance service today, so the DCA and I dropped it off last night. He met me at the dealer to pick me up and bring me home. Because it was rush hour, we took the back roads instead of the freeways, and we inevitably got caught at a stoplight. We were driving with the windows down to save gas and because it was a hot, sunny afternoon. Deep in conversation, I was knitting away on the second black sock. Suddenly, I hear, "Hey, what are you making?" A lady driving a 1970s van and towing a boat was yelling at me from the vehicle next to ours. I answered, "A sock! I've already finished the first one!" and I held it up for her to see. She said, "Cool! Those must be really warm!" and then the light changed and we drove away.

Knitters will take over the world by capturing the attention of one unsuspecting observer at a time!

I Surrender!

I went to the Sock of the Month Club class at Bonita Knitting yesterday, and I learned how to start a toe-up sock. Apparently, I am a fairly advanced sock knitter and don't really need to attend classes. They have invited me to come back to hang out on Saturdays for their clinic (read SnB). I'm excited, because the whole point of my joining the club was to find other sock knitters to hang out with. The best part is the clinic is free! I will probably be headed back over there soon.

While I was at the class, I showed off the DCA's black socks on two circs. I said the main reason I started them was just to prove I could, but I complained about how clumsy and slow I felt while working on them. The instructor asked, "So why don't you put them on DPNs and finish them in a method you like?" At that point, I felt like I finally had permission to move one of them off the circs to DPNs. Why would I need permission to do that? I'm so obsessive compulsive about finishing a project the way I start it!

So, I gave in and put one of the socks on DPNs. The other sock is still on the two circular needles, and it's the one I'm working on. Now I know why some knitters prefer this method! The circular needle sock is speeding along now that the second sock is out of the way. It was just too awkward before with the second sock and ball of yarn in the way. I'm hoping to have the socks done by the end of the week since I go back to work tomorrow.

While I was at the store, I also gave in to my dreams of laceweight, and I bought four balls of Crystal Palace Kid Merino in Code Pink. I have started working on the Mohair Travel Shawl which appears in the scarves and shawls insert that came with Interweave's Fall 2006 issue (it originally appeared in the Summer 2001 issue). It's a very simple pattern, and the laceweight itself is keeping it interesting. I was afraid the endless garter stitch might make me bored too quickly, but I am still having to pay attention to the yarn because it's so new to me. The shawl is a great "in-between" project while I wait for my Clapotis's yarn.

I have a few more things to do today to get ready for school tomorrow, and the socks, the socks they are a-calling!

Riding the Waves

Both of my Wavy scarves are done! Aren't they lovely? The pink and purple one on the left is for LNO, and the multi-colored one on the right is mine. I can hardly wait for the weather to cool off so I can wear it!

I'm making slow but steady progress on the DCA's black socks on two circs. I know certain knitters must just fly along using this method, but I feel slow and clumsy using it. I guess I'm just a DPN girl...

In the latest news, I have joined my first Knit Along! It's the Black Bunny Hop Along hosted by Knitty D and the City. I love the idea of this one because I get to knit anything I like as long as I use Black Bunny yarn. I bought my sock yarn today, and I'm starting to talk to Black Bunny about some yarn for my first laceweight project. I hope to be working on the Print O' the Waves Stole by Eunny Jang. I can almost feel the fuzzy goodness now!

One Down, One to Go

I finished the Wavy scarf for LNO! Roo says she will absolutely love the scarf and that it's pretty. I love how the curved ribbing gives a simple, but elegant, feel to what could have been just another boring scarf. I will try to post a picture when it's not quite so late in the evening.

I started my scarf almost immediately which surprised me--I normally don't like to knit the same pattern again right away, so I must enjoy this one. I am using the rejected multi-color yarn for mine, the color is not pooling in weird, unexpected ways, and I am loving it! I am starting to yearn for a chill in the weather just so I can wear it.

I also cast on for a "Magic Friend" from the book Knitter's Stash. It's just a really basic stuffed animal pattern, but I'm trying to make some modifications to it so it feels more seamless. The book called for a yarn that resembles the evil Fun Fur, and I am trying to use the leftover Alpaca from my stole. Since evil Fun Fur would normally hide cast-ons and bind-offs, I am trying to cleverly hide them from my lovely, smooth Alpaca. I still haven't decided if it should be a bunny, bear, or cat. I also haven't decided whether to donate it to the annual craft fair at church or to keep it around--it is so hard to let go of the Alpaca!

I am off to neglect my knitting in favor of a classic American novel!

I Threw It to the Frogs

After a while, the color pooling went away as the Clapotis started its slanted rows. I was rather happy with it until I switched skeins of yarn. My latest idea for LNO's scarf called for 5 bands of color--3 each of the multi and 2 each of pale pink. In the store, the multi and the pink appeared to match; in the scarf, they were a miserable combination. I went to bed last night, and I couldn't sleep for thinking about this terrible turn of events.

This morning, I was so frustrated that I frogged the whole thing and went looking for a new pattern. I found the Wavy scarf pattern at Knitty, and I think it's going to work out just fine. I went diving into my meager stash and pulled out the plain purple I initially meant for LNO's mini-Clapotis before I found the multi. The new scarf will only be 30 stitches wide instead of the 42 called for in the pattern, and it will have purple ends on a long pale pink center. It's going to be fabulous after last night's disaster.

The positive side of all this is that I now feel completely comfortable with the Clapotis pattern. I know the silk/merino blend I chose for my version is a much better selection for the pattern than the one I was using last night. I can't wait for my yarn to arrive!

I think I will knit a second Wavy scarf for myself out of the three skeins of multi I am going to have left from the Clapotis's demise. I was always coveting the multi for myself anyway. Besides, fall is coming, and you can't have too many scarves.

The Alpaca Is Thrilled...

...and so am I! The Alpaca Arrowhead Stole is finally finished. Moose's giant Pooh was gracious enough to model the finished object for us.

Once upon a time in May, I stepped into my LYS intending to find some yarn for my first attempt at a sweater. I fell in love with this lovely violet-blue alpaca worsted. At first, I tried to force it to be a tunic sweater much like the one I just completed. It did not want to be a sweater; it wanted to be an Aran shawl. After a few days, the yarn changed its mind yet again, and it no longer wanted to be an Aran shawl. This time it wanted to be an Arrowhead Lace Stole, and I allowed the yarn to have its way. After several false starts--the width had to be just right--the stole was finally underway. The alpaca has been patient through my many cheating moments as I stole time away to work on other projects--especially the lilac sweater. It had grouchy moments too, and I could hear it calling me from where I stashed it. Now, we are living in harmony as the alpaca has been converted to my lovely shawl, and I will have something warm and toasty this winter.

Since the alpaca is off the needles, I've decided to ignore those pesky socks and slippers and dedicate some time to knitting a mini-Clapotis for LNO, the daughter of my friend. Her birthday is in November, and I want to have her present stashed away well before the big day and to give myself enough time to finish it since school is starting soon. Sometimes teaching really interferes with my knitting time. (It's really just a test run for my own Clapotis while I wait for my Lisa Souza Max yarn to arrive. I want to be in the groove and knitting smoothly for the real thing!) Here's my problem:

I am not too keen on how the pink is "pooling" in the middle of the scarf at the moment. (For some bizarre reason, it looks much better in the picture than in person.) I tried to stop the pooling by doing another repeat of increase rows, but that made the mini-Clap too wide. Ripping it back to one fewer set of increases makes it too narrow. The Clapotis pattern doesn't seem amenable to easily switching skeins of yarns, so I guess I'm stuck with it. I'm glad it's not mine, because it would make me crazy. I'm hoping that opening up the dropped stitches may lessen the pooling effect. I am also trusting that a pre-teen just won't care about small things like color pooling in her scarf.

Behold the Fuzzy Feet!

After yesterday's frogged heel flap, I was absolutely determined to finish the DCA's Fuzzy Feet today. I took them to the Girl's Night Out potluck dinner for church last night and knitted by the side of the pool. I took them to my favorite LYS this morning and worked on them during Roo's class. I came home and knitted some more during our Lord of the Rings marathon this afternoon.

I am happy to announce they are semi-finished--all that awaits is a trip through the washing machine to felt them to their proper size. This time, I will pay closer attention to the required felting time so they actually fit the DCA's feet (my first attempt fit the Moose instead). Note to self: the felting instructions really do mean it when they say check your felted item every 2 to 3 minutes throughout the wash cycle.

Here they are in all their pre-felted glory....

I'll include a post-felting shot (maybe the DCA will even wear them!) as soon as the next load of laundry hits the spin cycle.

The Alpaca stole is still crying for my attention, so I'm back to my needles!

Amphibians on a Summer Evening

Rippit! Rippit!

I started the heel flap on the second Fuzzy Feet slipper for the DCA this afternoon. I knit happily away on it before I took the Moose to piano and while he had his lesson. I turned the heel and started to consider where I needed to pick up stitches along the flap so I could begin the gusset.

Wait a minute, why was there an odd number of stitches in my turned heel? Did I decrease incorrectly? No, it couldn't be! But, oh yes, it could! I had one extra stitch in my heel flap. I briefly considered leaving it--it would all be felted together anyway, right? But could I leave that extra stitch there, knowing that it would taunt me each time I gazed upon these slippers on the DCA's feet? Of course not! So, the amphibians began to sing a summer chorus for me as I frogged the entire heel flap and started over. I was so silly to think I might actually have another finished object tonight...sigh...

I will now think positively as I consider that I now have 22 extra stitches worth of the crimson wool with which to knit these lovely slippers for my favorite Sooners fan. It's an extra 22 stitches worth of the dwindling supply that tells me the frogs may still be lying in wait for these Fuzzy Feet. Stay tuned for updates on attacking amphibians.

Things I Learned at the Movies

Last night, instead of working away steadily on my fuzzy blue Alpaca stole, I happily left the kids with the DCA and slipped away for a chick flick movie night with my friend. (The Devil Wears Prada and The Lake House were playing back-to-back!) Since I can't sit still without something in my fingers, I took my knitting along. I didn't take just any knitting to the movies--I took the black socks on two circs to the movies. Call me crazy, but I did it anyway. We sat in the very front row, and because of the ambient light from the screen, I was actually able to see the black stitches on the shiny points of my Addi Turbos (Fans of Brenda, you may mentally insert the Star Wars light saber noise here).

I only dropped two stitches in four hours--I don't think that's too bad overall. I found one of the stitches at the theater, but I fixed it incorrectly and had to re-do it at home. I didn't find the second stitch until the second movie was almost over, so I stuck it on a stitch holder (a most excellent little gadget) and picked it up at home in the 250 Watts of lovely brightness that is my downstairs bath. Picking up stitches on a black sock knit on 2mm Addis is somewhat painful under any circumstances.

The real dark spot (it's dark at the movies, get it?) in my evening was leaving my prescription sunglasses in the theater when they fell off my knitting bag. D'oh! I really don't know why I took them in the theater because a) it's dark in there and b) it was dark when the movies got out. I guess it's okay though--I took it as a sign of needing to get my eyes checked since I was a year overdue anyway.

As a result, I went to the optometrist this morning, and I got the whole shebang including eye dilation. Did you know that trying to knit teeny sock stitches with dilated eyes is a true test of your knitting dedication? They look REALLY fuzzy on those tiny needles! The doctor said that I now know what my eyesight will be like when I'm 80--I have so much to look forward to.

Anyway, I have new sunglasses in hand, and my new regular glasses will be ready in a week--they have that way cool anti-glare scratch coat on them, dontcha know? In addition to my two normal prescriptions, she also gave me two back-up scrips just in case--one is for computer work (in case I have a sudden increase in my computer time) and the other one is for close work or for reading if I feel like I need them. Does knitting count as close work? Ha! As if I'd drop another $300 on a third pair of glasses...

I hear the Alpaca whining in the other room. It is now extremely jealous of the time I spent with the socks last night and today, so I'm headed off to pay it some much needed attention. Maybe I'll have another FO tomorrow!

It's a FO!

And, no, it's not the Navy kind, thank goodness!

The neckdown pullover tunic is finished! It's really finished, with the ends woven in and everything. This is the first adult-sized sweater I have ever knit, and it's mine, I tell you, all mine! Mwuhahaha!

My new tunic is knit from the top down in the round and has raglan sleeves. It is a Knitting Pure and Simple pattern, and it contains miles and miles of stockinette stitch. If I ever make this again, I am definitely going to include some kind of pattern to end the monotony. Okay, so tunics aren't so fashionable, but let me tell you, it is truly comfy! It will be the perfect fall sweater for curling up with my knitting, a good movie, and some hot cocoa!

Now I am off to pay attention to the black socks or to the Alpaca stole (the Alpaca is grouchy because I have been ignoring it in favor of the sweater). Before I go, check out this item which is trying to worm its way into my queue: The Weasley Sweater. The kids are on a Harry Potter kick, and I may do a Molly Weasley and knit them some sweaters for Christmas. Don't worry! I'll ask before I make one in maroon.

And So It Begins...

The DCA has said I need a blog to track my knitting and all my favorite blogs and sites. So here goes! As I have practically no html experience, this should be a fun learning opportunity. Bear with me while I work out the small details.

As so many of us out here, I am a knitter. It is my favorite hobby and my tenuous link to sanity. Knitting keeps me grounded and allows me to decompress after work. In the past, I rarely knit things for myself (except for socks), but I am now in a more selfish phase of knitting which is all about me, Me, ME. I spent the summer working on projects for other people and for Christmas, so now it's MY turn!