Busy Bee, Busy Me

So much has happened in the last nine days. We have all had the flu, myself and Monkey included, which has contributed to the lack of blog posting. Also, I have been gearing up to teach my sock class 101 that I committed to teaching at Make One on Monday nights. Concidentially, I taught my first class while at the height of illness and was running a fever at the same time. Talk about being out of it. I am apparently very good at faking being ok as I called my best friend after the class and she let me know that I sounded a little euphoric and not at all like my usual self. I did manage to get everyone knitting in the round (and not backwards apparently) by the end of the class so, I guess, all's well that ends well. Right? Right.

I do have some finished projects and some that are nearing completion to show you. After seeing some of the baby sized Odessa's on Ravelry, I decided that I desperately needed one right now and cast on last week. This is the end result and I must say, I am very pleased with the results.

Incidentally, I have no idea what the dangling threads are hanging out of the bottom of the hat. Rest assured, they do not exist in real life. I am chalking them up to photography error.

I also picked up Cat Bordhi's new book and I love all the sock designs. So, I have decided to work my way from the front to the back of the book. The minute I got the book home, I cast on for the Baby Sky socks. They are such an amazingly well written pattern and so interesting to knit. I know it will sound incredibly cheesy, but this is the best sock book I have ever bought - and I have only knit the first pattern.

Finally, I returned the yarn that I was originally going to use to make Emerald (I fell out of love with the color) and in accordance with the watch agreement, was able to pick up four skeins of Tilli Thomas Voile de la Mer in American Beauty. Totally Scrummy! I am planning to use this to make the Hanging Garden stole by Sivia Harding. Apparently, this is a very good beginner lace project - we shall see. I figure if I set aside 30 minutes each night and retreat to another (kid-free) room, it will be done by this time next year.

Goodbye Old Friends

Well, the cats were delivered to their new home on Saturday night. I have been assured by TG that they have been delievered into a very nice home with very nice people. Still I am sad. I had a bit of a minor meltdown on Saturday night as TG was carting them away and have not been able to bring myself to phone the nice people who have taken them and see how they are all getting along. I really do miss them and it's so hard not to have them here with me, snuggling in bed and purring away.

Anyway, despite all the sad, I have managed to get my Monkey socks done. I love the way that they turned out.




Pattern: Monkey Socks by Cookie A.
Yarn: Socks That Rock - Walkin on the Wild Tide
Needle: 2.75mm (US 2)
Modifications: I made the leg a little shorter by doing one less repeat of the pattern and since the yarn has no nylon in it, I substituted a slipstich heel for the short row one which will hopefully make for longer wearing socks. Next on the sock needles - a plain cuff down sock knit in Cherry Tree Hill Merino in the Quarry Hill colorway. These will be my demo socks for the sock class I am teaching at Make 1 starting Sept 24.

Free to GREAT Home

Well, it looks as though Monkey may be alergic to the cats. This means that they have to go and soon. I am beyond upset about this as these cats have been my best-est friends for over 8 years now.

They are seriously wonderful felines and are incredibly well behaved. Both are de-clawed (hey, don't yell at me - they lived with my mom for a while when I moved into a complex that didn't allow cats and she had them de-clawed. However, neither seems to get that they have no claws - they still pretend scratch our plastic laundry baskets). They will not touch any food left on the counter, ever. And they are super cuddly.

I have been totally torn up about this and I really am reluctant to give them away until we know for sure that Monkey is actually alergic to the cats. At this point, our dr. has told us that the cats are most likely the cause and she is currently at a higher SIDS risk because of her breathing issues, so the faster we get them out of the house, the better. So, the best case senario would be to have someone take them long enough for me to clean the house from top to bottom and see if it makes a difference to Monkey's breathing issues. If it is the cats that she is allergic to, then it would be nice if the foster mom or dad could adopt them for good.

Sigh. This is one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make, but if it has to be a choice, I need them to go to a good, loving home. Hopefully this will help the decision become easier.

On the Wagon...

I have owned the same watch for the last, um, decade or so and it was a gift from a very ex-boyfriend and was quite possibly stolen by said ex. I like it well enough, but lately, it occurred to me that it might be time to get a new watch. So, with that intention in mind, I went out watch shopping. Nothing caught my eye. I tried on a hundred or so watches and nothing caught my eye. Until... I lured Hubby into a small jewelers in a small mall which is quite close to our house and found this. I love this watch. Love it. But, as the one in the store is slightly different and almost twice the price, Hubby had a heart attack (as he rightly should) and (only somewhat) jokingly said that if I agree to forego any yarn buying until the end of February (that is 6 months people), I could have the watch. So, I am officially on a self imposed yarn hiatus (I refuse to call it a diet), yarn moratorium, a yarn fast, if you will for the next six months.

This will be tough. So, here are the official rules (in case you are keeping score):

1. Any yarn I trade does not count

2. Any yarn I have already pre-ordered (and thus committed to buy) does not count

3. Anything that I make from teaching classes/ designing patterns does not count and may be used to purchase yarn

4. Gift certificates to yarn stores may be spent on yarn

Now, I did expect challenges along the way and my first one came tonight. My LYS received their much anticipated shipment of Claudia's Laces. But, I managed to hold out. I know I can do this. I just need some willpower. I am hoping that less buying translates into more knitting. Of course, there will still be some yarn coming in; like this Artyarns Supermerino that I received last week:

and this Seacoast Yarn which was also received last week:

On a brighter note, the shower this weekend for Monkey (well, really for me) was a hit! The Tuesday night drinkers (er, I mean knitters) showed up, spread out and promptly pulled out their knitting. I think it may have shocked a family member or two, but all in all much fun was had and sock progress was made by all. I even got the last skein of yarn I wanted (pictures to come) and Sara recorded the day. Check out her blog for some amazing photos!!

Thanks all for showing up and helping me celebrate!!

Bunny Candy Tuesday

I managed to convince Bunny to try on the dress yesterday and let me take some photos. Actually, she was more than willing to wear the dress - she would wear it to bed if I let her - but the photos, not so much. So, without further ado; here is the dress...

Wild Monkeys (all worn out)

Well, we went to the wedding this weekend and while it was a wonderful affair, I am extremely tired and so is Husband. And the kids? Exhausted. Seriously. They actually slept all the way home which gave Husband and I an hour and a half of relative relaxation.

It was quite the weekend, between trying to pack for four people, making sure the formal clothes, gift and all baby/ child related accessories made it to the hotel for the Big Night. No small feat, let me tell you. And, forgetting anything was not an option as the hotel was an hour and a half away!

So, given the fact that I was responsible for packing everything, making sure that all four people were properly outfitted and on time for every part of the evening, this should explain why I didn't get a single picture taken of anything all night. Nope. Not a one. Jeez. Not a single picture of the happy couple, not a picture of the beautiful venue, and most upsetting, not a single picture of Hubby, myself, or the kids. Sigh. Fortunately, I am almost positive that the good friends that were there with us did take copious photos of the evening, so, hopefully one of them took a photo of the dress I made for Bunny. I will let you know soon.

Otherwise, I completely missed the deadline to get my SAM4 KAL socks in for August. I should have them done in a few days, which I guess will make them September's socks. Oh well. I really wanted a pair of Monkey's for myself since I sent my last pair to my Sockapalooza4 buddy. I did a search on Ravelry and stumbled across the most beautiful pair of Monkey socks, which were knit using April's Rockin' Sock Club yarn. Totally amazing.

I do have a photo of the first finished sock on my Ravelry site, but, I really wanted show the close up of the slip stitch heel, which I find to be the perfect heel for most cuff down socks. This type of heel is much stronger than the average stockinette or short row heel, and in my opinion, produces a very neat pattern because of the slipped stitches. Basically, when you work a heel like this, instead of knitting all the stitches on the knit rows, you slip every second stitch purl wise. And, you purl all stitches on the purl side.

I am calling these socks my Wild Monkey's as the colorway for April was "Walkin on the Wild Tide". Pictures of the finished socks as soon as they are done. Although, Bunny starts Kindergarten on Tuesday (gasp) so, hopefully I can see to knit through my tears... my little girl is soooooo big!