Happy New Year!

It's been a really good month. I was able to be off from work for a 1.5 weeks leading up to the new year. We had attempted painting our bathroom and gave up, calling a professional company to come out for an estimate next week. We went from sanding the wall to chipping the current and past layer of paint. And then...when we entered "OMFG the layer of paint attached to the plaster board (the wall) is coming off" territory, we decided it was much to complex a project for ourselves. We'll get an estimate on Monday.

Aside from this project, I've worked on a pair of Eric's Glovelets (found on Ravlery) for my sister, who bought the pattern ions ago but found she doesn't work well with double pointed needles and has never knit a gusset. It was a really quick knit and taught me that the thumb gusset on the Hurry Up Spring Armwarmers (in Stitch 'n Bitch Nation) have serious issues. The biggest plus is that when she bought the kit, it came with two skeins and it only took one to do the gloves (she has small hands and I did some modifications) so now I have enough to make a pair for myself. I used Frog Tree Alpalca Sportweight. It is some of the softest yarn I have used.

For Christmas, I received a few knitting gifts, including:

• Subscription to Interweave Knits
• Blocking Board
• Fiber Fantasy Sweater Blockers
• T-pins
• Knit Klips
• WEBS Gift Certificate

Blackbird - 6th Shipment of Socks that Rock

As the name of the yarn states, this yarn is black. The colors range from black, grey, burgundy. It's a yarn that is just as easily an abyss/absence of color. Because I only knit one of the kits, I won't be renewing my membership. It's for the best really.

My new Formal Boot Bag

I found it really tedious to back stitch the panel in place and will openly admit, I did a bit of a shoddy job. In the end, I found one spot that indeed had a gaping hole and so I dragged out more yarn and completed the panel. Since the bag and panel are wool, it's likely that over time they wll start adhering to one another as part of a felting process so I'm not terribly concerned. On Ravelry, I saw loads of knitters put in a lining, which now has me considering doing the same. I might put one in down the road (and perhaps a zipper too) but right now I would just like to cross the project off my list.

They're Finished!!

Finally, the Queen of Beads...

Job Change

I had a recent change in jobs and this has caused me to not post as frequently. I wasn't inclined to move out of state with my past employer (along with some other things) so I found a new job. While I'm still a fundraiser I'm no longer on the front lines and happy to be working in an office and environment with such highly trained staff. The most awesome part of this change is that I'm now mere minutes away from home. However, this also a challenge for me as a knitter. Whereas I used my knitting to pass along the time on my long commute, I'm now having to actually spend my spare time on it. And unfortunately for my large stash, I'm just not knitting as much. But I have finally gotten around to reading Knit Two. I'm going to post some items that have been lingering for months in my edit pile for weeks so bear with the strange time passing that may be mentioned in them. I just don't want to look at them anymore.

An Evening of Felting

I spent tonight felting the Formal Foot Bag. It came out perfectly and roughly matches the dimensions in Bag Style. The bag turned out really well. It took an hour or so of being in the washer. After it dries I'll affix the bag to the leather handle I purchased from Homestead Heirlooms LLC at Stitches Midwest. I'm still working on the panel that needs to be attached to the front and back of the bag. I completed a few rows watching Watchmen but still have 6" left to go. I should have it finished next weekend. And maybe have the bag completed.

The news on my Queen of Beads socks is that there are no beads matching mine at the store. There going to send me some beads that are closest to them and I'll just use them to finish the rest of the sock. I'm not sure I care all that much at this point. and maybe if I un-knit some of the other sock and mix up the beads, it won't look so pronounced. Meh...no need to worry yet. I'll just have to evaluate the situation once I have more understanding of what I'm dealing with.

River Rocked - 5th Shipment of Socks that Rock

This shipment arrived on Saturday, while I was taking a nap. I really like the colors in this yarn: blue, brown, purple, orange, red. Just spectacular. It is like looking at the color palette of a forest. This is both a color way and pattern I would have easily picked out in a shop.
















I am still hoping that the Sock Club folks might have some leftover beads for my Queen of Bead sock. It turns out they used five different types of beads when putting together everyone's shipments. By my own calculations, after looking over the first sock, I'm short nearly 3 dozen beads. I'm not sure what I'm going to do if I'm unable to acquire more.