*squee*

I have Wollemeise!!

My Loopy Ewe order arrived.

I got Wollemeise sock in Gewitterhimmel.

It is really vibrant and pretty. I'm planning to knit a Clapotis with it (since I'm having a hard time thinking of using it for socks... and since, I haven't knit a Clap yet, - and now I have plans for two...)

And the Pretty as a Peacock shawl pattern.

While I was working

I've been trying to be a good girl... really... and do work... and stuff. I have actually managed to get a little bit of work done, and even have something written which will eventually be part of a thesis.

My birthday is coming up (never sure how I feel about that, but I digress) so I have been, um, treating myself. I bought books!! The Knitter's Book of Yarn; Knitting Lingerie Style; and Romantic Hand Knits. I like them all, but haven't had time to do much more than look at pictures. Then, I got a last minute (and by that I mean 3 days and week into the semester already) teaching job. So I needed to get a copy of the text book - so I ordered more books... to get the free shipping of course... (keep telling yourself that) - which means I should be getting more knitting books, possibly even on my birthday.

I've also been opening and closing my knit picks cart, though I haven't placed an order...yet.... I'm determined to wait to order more yarn until the Loopy Ewe and Webs orders actually get here.

I'm on the lower body of the Coachella, everything is a bit funky with mine due to the yarn I'm using, I added a whack more body shaping, we'll see how that works out.

I'm nearly halfway through my test knitting project, but I need to do something a bit fiddly so I'm waiting on that a bit (as I need to do some research on the necessary technique).

I cast on Feb's Thrifty Knitter's Sock Club sock - Sydney, and um, I'm only 1 chart repeat and the ribbing on each sock away from being done ... I think I'll have to knit a different pair of socks for my Feb socks in sock a month... I've been working on these while listening to back eps of L&V and because I'm doing them at the same time (fyi I think the pattern way over estimates how much yarn is needed) and don't want to leave one at a different stage than the other I'm whizzing through them much faster than I expected to.

Gratuitious baby picture- my God-daughter was baptized this weekend, she makes this face a lot...

Football, Spinning, and Net Browsing

Football playoffs are in full swing, which means the swearing at the screen and screaming at the defence is getting louder and more intense. And my special Pats' games socks are at the heel turn of the second sock and can't be knit at any time other than during the game lest I upset the delicate balance of the football universe.

I finished spinning and plying the green Fleece Artist merino/alpaca. I think it is about a DK weight, but it varries, not very good at spinning consistently. I have been trying to find a pattern to knit with it, and I'm leaning towards Foliage at this point.

Today I downloaded all the early eps of Lime and Violet (1-35) from before I started listening to it in the Summer. I've been listening to these all day (as I translated Middle Welsh). Once I got that done (it took all day, but I'm blaming that on the fact that I tweaked my neck and leaning over the table to translate was causing my neck great pain) I sat down, with L&V and got working on my second Bellatrix sock. And I was browsing the Loopy Ewe (as I am wont to do) and suddenly some new roving appeared. So I went back to the main page and oh.look. the Wollmeise had updated! So I managed to get a skein of Gewitterhimmel and also a pattern I've had on my wishlist for awhile. Wasn't planning to buy yarn for awhile, but - dude- when the knitting gods send you Wollmeise you do not spit in their faces! One good thing about ordering from the Loopy Ewe is that- given I end up paying duty on their packages - I am very restrained in my purchases so as to mitigate additional charges (yarn money going to the government is bad - better to spread the purchase out over time).

Queen St is a wonderful place

Today I spent the morning dutifully writing in my carrel and spent the afternoon ttc-ing up and down Queen St.

I went to check out the Purple Purl on Queen E. (For the record, WAY further E than I normally get). It had a great layout, very open and bright. Not a lot of stock, which is sensible given they only opened in November. They did a better job than many a yarn shop of labeling and pricing things clearly, but still not as well as I'd like (honestly in my world, if there is no price to be found it's free people). I picked up some wool for some mittens, 3 compact needle size thing-ies, and a purty skein of pink-purple-black tofutsies (note to the world - I didn't realize there is 400+ yards in ONE skein of this!!)

Then I hopped back on the ttc and went to nearly the opposite end of Queen (well not quite but you know) and picked up a couple of things from Romni - some back fingering to heel my Bellatrix socks, some yarn for a present, and some SOAK.

From Romni (back on to the ttc) to Arton Beads, where I bought: beads for the shawl my dad is giving my mom for her birthday (score - I knit, he pays), beads for me one day to do one of the Ice Queen with the dark mohair from Aunt Shirley, beads to go with the present, some more stitch marker fixtures, stuff for St. Valentines sts markers, and some more assorted charms for sts markers. Including 2 sets of Zodiac ones, I haven't decided whether to make them all the same bead or to try to match beads to months.... I am beginning to wonder what to do with all of the sts markers I'm making. I mean, I don't use that many of them and my few knitting friends can only use so many (esp. when at least one also makes her own), so other than swaps (whereby I still end up with more markers) I'm kind of at a loss...

(this is only about half of my bead haul....)

I finished up the day with a trip to LUSH (oh - dear - they were having a sale.... is it a bad thing when you save nearly $100.... I swear most of it was for my mother!!)

Jan lull

It is Jan. The Christmas knitting rush is over as are my hopes of getting various things done for Christmas/New Years for myself.

I'm settling nicely into some sock knitting for me (one pair of Slippery Socks done, half + of a pair of plain old wonderful generic stockinette socks in Austermann Step for watching football, and a pair of Bellatrix underway - more below). I am slowly replacing all my non-athletic socks with hand knit ones.

There are a few other things, some left overs from last year, most especially a shawl in my first skein of mini-maiden, and the mohair shrug - currently in a shoe box under the chair in the living room. Plus the spinning that is out on my desk. I'm spinning up the green Fleece Artist (merino/alpaca blend), which is pretty but I'm not sure I like the put up, it got very, um, gnarly, just sitting in the basket. I'd also like to ply what I've got of the cosmic blue and spin up some more of it - when I get better I'll tackle the luscious purple bamboo from Glenna. And then there are the things I have yarn for I want to knit - the red carpet convertible -which I started but frogged because I did something backwards and then forgot where I was... and Cochella, and oh, another half a dozen sock patterns/yarns or so including: Thelonius, Gothic Spires, and Esther.

The Bellatrix socks are the January project for the Thrifty Knitters Sock Club on Ravelry. I'm using the hideous yarn I overdyed, which turned out a great emerald and black - perfect Slytherin socks. Only problem, I knit the leg - great, heel - great and I even did the flap, and foot - problem ... not enough yardage oops! So I frogged back to the leg and set up for an after-thought heel (a la after-thought thumbs on mittens, as in I'm not gonna cut anything, I used waste yarn to knit across the sts I'll want when I go back to do the heel). I'm nearly through the foot now and will have to see whether I will: a) have enough yarn and b) want to do the toes in the main colour, I'll probably find myself some black for the heels (and toes if need be).

I'll be slowing down a lot for the next while knittingwise as I try to get serious with my thesis (aka- the shirts will keep waiting and the socks will go more slowly and the mittens I want to knit will take a couple weeks instead of two days). My goal is to have 25-ish pgs for the 5th of Feb when I have to meet with my supervisor and give some kind of account of my last several months. Somehow I don't think my FO list will go over well as an explaination of where last semester went...