Hats off!

My son's has out grown all his hats, and winter has decided, once again, to show. Thus, I am starting a hat. I found a quart sized bag of different colours of worsted, and an 'eye of partridge' stitch. Time to swatch!

Oh, the sock is doing well. I changed my mind on the different yarn idea, and am buying another ball of the Imagination. I'm half way done with the foot on the first sock, and rather pleased with it. It's a fast knit, for all I am a slow knitter.

Socks

For the last few nights I've dreamt about socks. It's not so abnormal for me to dream of kniting, it's just perturbing at this time becasue I have a few projects on the needles that need to get done. Theres the skirt I started last year and needs just a few more inches, my son's blanket,and a blanket that needs to be planed and made for my soon to arrive niece/nephew. Not to mention the sol thats been sitting waiting to be finished for almost three years now(I'm probably going to frog it). But, I keep dreaming of socks.

I give up. I'm making socks. It will give me a break from the other things, that mostly aren' getting done because I'm tired of them. I'll have new drive to finish them when I'm done with the socks, right? So, after looking around, there is this ball of knitpicks Imagination Evil Stepmother sitting on my coffee table. It was going to be a sock for a friend a few years ago, but it didnt quite make it Well, it's mine now. And I did research for a pattern. The reason it never made it to my friend, is I hated it I made the sock and re-knit parts of it. I jst hated how it pooled. Not this time.. Knitty's Achilles Heal should be great.

Here I go casting on, I did a (half) swatch last night. ...Bugger. There's not enough yarn for a whole pair here. Dan it, I really want to make these socks. I suppose I could make the other one with the Wicked Witch...but..I don't want to. You know what, Im going to find a solid colour(I think I have some nice cones of fingering in my stash somewhere) and use that for the heel, sole and toe. That should give me enough yarn.

Here goes. Wish me luck!

So much for being back...

Really, I had intended to be blogging more. I even have a few half finished posts in my head waiting to be typed. However, there is always so much that keeps me away from the computer, or when i have a chance to use it, there are other, more important thingsd to do. Like right now, I have some research that needs doing. That and I just got home from an extremely busy day at work. Oh well.

A lesson in gauge

Always make a gauge swatch, they told me. Don't forget to swatch. Arg. I hate swatching, with a passion. Last motzie shabbos I started a new blanket, and since it's a free form patternless blanket I figured it was the perfect excuse to not swatch, right? WRONG. I had a nice garter border going, then started off in stockinette, noting fancy. a few rows latter it starts to roll. No big deal, stockinette always rolls abit, but it'll even itself out in a few more rows. A week I told myself this, convinced it would be fine. I should know better. Once it rolls, it keeps rolling. I pulled it out yesterday, dejected and sad, but with resolve. Larger needles looser tension, wont be a problem. Wrong again. I cast on far too many stitches, and now it will be to long. Alas, annoying, but a mistake I can live with. I just hope I have enough yarn.

I'm back!

HELLO!!!

I’ve not talked with you in a rather long time. The fault is mine, of course, as I’ve not been on LJ in a rather long time. I got a little caught up in this strange thing called ‘Life’. Fun, yes, though a bit overwhelming and stressful at times. I’ve realized how much I’ve missed the Internet and my friends here though so I am coming back. Yay.

Quick catching up-ness is in order though, I should think, as it’s been close to a year or more since we’ve been in touch.

As of last June I have been working at Macy’s selling glasses, which i have to say is much better than being a cashier at the grocery. It’s both more fun, intellectually stimulating and has a higher pay rate. The down side is, that rather than a 15 minute bike ride, I know must travel about 45 minutes by bus. I can still bike there, when the weather is good, but don’t do so as often as I’d like because at some point on the way I get stressed that I’ll be late. Then again, it’s been a hectic summer, and mornings often felt rushed.
My husband is still in school for computer programming, though he will G-d willing be graduating this May. From there he will be attempting to get an awesome job both because he wants to and because we are expecting our child in December, and finding child care is as yet proving difficult. Should he manage to secure a well paying job, I’ll be able to stay home with the little one until it is old enough to interact with other little ones. In the mean time though, he is working at the local pizza factory, making pizzas and hot dogs. For some reason they decided to make hot dogs now too. No-one is quite sure why, but it’s their company so they can do as they wish, and it gives him a job on days he does not have class, so I can’t complain too much about it.

That in short has been my life for the last while.

Teaching Knitting

A while ago my neighbor asked me to teach her daughter to knit. At first it sounded like a great idea, and then yom tov happened and there was stress. Last week we had our first lesson, and once again it proved to be a great idea. We started with the knit stitch, I decided that casting on can wait until the basic concepts are well engrained in her. She is an extremely fast learner. after showing her maybe three or four stitches in slow motion she was at her on her own, and did the whole row(some 30 stitches) with only minor mistakes. This week we worked on consistency when throwing the yarn as it was a bit of an issues, and next week, I think we'll move on to purling. From there it's a simple matter of pattern reading and combo-stitches, cast-on and bind off.

I'm thinking that I might not have this student for very long, because she will have learned all I know very quickly. It's making me think that maybe I should put out an add to teach other kids. After all, I'm good at knitting, and it'd be a fun way to earn some yarn money.

Scaredy Cat Goes Out

For a few months now, I've been caring for my Alix's cat. (Yes, the Alix with the baby that has no name.) He is the cutest, most annoyingly lovable cat I have yet to encounter. He is also the scarediest cat on the planet. I am not exaggerating. He is afraid of heights, and the dark, scared of the outside, and get super lonely. He also has a tendency to eat to fast and throw up.

Whilst living with us, though, he's gotten much better. He still cries when we turn the lights out and leave him in the living room for the night, but he's thrown up much less, and seems a little less scared. Today we went outside. Not outside, to The Great Outdoors, but outside the apartment. He's been trying to sneak out and explore as I leave for work for a few weeks, so today I took him.

I tried to have him wear his harness and leash, because he's fast. He was having none of it. The moment I put it on he looked at me as if to say 'What is this thing and why is it attached to me'. He would not leave the apartment, or even look at the door. Just stared at me with big sad eyes. The minute I took it off though, ZOOM he was out sniffing the neighbors shoes and checking out the mail box. Until my husband opened the door on his way back from Shul and scared the meow out. He almost cracked his head on the corner of the door trying to get in faster.

Maybe we'll practice a bit with the harness in the apartment and try for The Great Outdoors next week.