TAKING BACK [THE KNIT]

and printed out 103 pictures at the one hour photo deal before going shopping. paid for them and all. and left without picking them up. BRILLIANT!

And this is one of those times. This entry has taken a couple of days. The combination of my super-slow dial-up and having to stop and save my entry every few minutes is slow going. Especially where pictures are involved. A plus: I figured out how to upload my pictures without bs resizing them. sah-weet!

FINISHED! 'Sassy Socks'

yarn: Moda Dea "Sassy Stripes", hence the name. Totally unrelated to the Sassy Stitchess, Kaitlyn. Although I thought of her every time I looked at the word sassy on the label.

Pattern: "Pippi Kneestockings" from Stitch N Bitch.

neddles: US3. bigger than the pattern recommended, but I am a big girl. leg/foot-wise at least.

I love these socks! They turned out so well, especially for a first pair. They are a little bit big, and they don't stay up as well as I like, but I'm still in love with them. The yarn was okay, very acrylic-y, but still soft. The stripes turned out wonderfully, minus and error on my part. But we will get to that part in a second. I love that first picture. It came out so well, just using the self-timer and putting the camera on the ground. Although, the ice chest in the background isn't the best back drop.

In the course of taking pictures of the socks, I realized I intended to wear them for dance and I should take pictures dancing in them. This was the result. Now, while that may look impressive, if you know anything about Highland dancing you could probably nit-pick 4537943 things with it. But I'm stopping before I get started.

For some reason when I joined a new ball right after turning the heel on the first sock, I didn't get it at the right part in the stripe progression. The one on the left is the one with the fuck-up; the one on the right is perfection, so if you look (not-so) closely, you can see there are two sections of the salt-and-pepper bits with a thin black stripe. I couldn't figure out why the colors weren't matching up when I was starting the toe decreases on the second sock, and then realized what I did. I just really shit the bed on that one. I figure it's not like I'm wearing these with any shoes that the foot would show anyway, so it is no big deal. But I felt like a dumbass. I clearly was not thinking.

The top of the knitty surprise tea cosy made me think "nipple!" as soon as I looked at it. I've been thinking about knitting one of my tea-drinking friends a tea cosy but I'm not sure about that one. Maybe I could purposely make it look like a boob. That could be mildly funny. :/

One of my friends requested a sweater [STOKED!] with 3 x's on the chest, as he is straight edge. I'm thinking I'm going to base it off the "Jesse's Flames" sweater in SnBN (with no flames, of course) since those books seem to be the only think I've been knitting from lately. I buy magazines all the time, I have a few books, there are beaucoup magazines and free patterns online, yet I seem to end up knitting out of these books a lot. I guess that's good. I just feel like some new jack knitter who just picked these books up and started knitting. It is kind of weird to think that I was actually knitting before those books came out. Makes me feel good. Like I did it before the trend, and that somehow validates me. I'm weird like that. ANYWAY, I am excited about this. I am not a sweater or scarf wearer, so I would like to knit them for other people more often.

Speaking of knitting for other people, I picked up my mom's afghan again, for the first time since I broke my hand. It's the aran afghan from knitty gritty/diy network (too lazy to find a link). I think I was originally going to finish it in time for her birthday (August 12th!) LAST YEAR, but it ended up being pushed off 'til Christmas, then I broke my hand. Then I thought maybe Mother's Day. Nope. It's like the never-ending project. I've got 4 squares left, and I will be done with this motherfucker! I'm aiming for the end of the month, although setting a goal to be done seems to be my downfall. I've got most of the boring pieces done, so it should be entertaining going from here. BUT here is my real qualm with this pattern: why design an afghan that will be 16 pieces, with only patterns for SEVEN squares?! I mean, at least with 8 you can just repeat everything twice, but now I either get to do everything twice and two squares three times, or to design one my own. That really wouldn't be too hard, but it would be a pain in the ass. I don't want to crunch numbers to find gauge and increases/decreases for something like this. So I'm not sure what I want to do. I am getting bored enough to want to design, though.

In the process of getting started again with this afghan, I started and finished my boobholder adaptation without even a mention of it here. [Maybe I have mentioned it, but not in detail, I don't believe.] I will take pictures once I get the rest of the ends woven in, and I tink the bind-off of one sleeve, as it is too tight. It de-stashed the rest of my red Cotton Ease. I really love that yarn. I still have a little less than a ball of blue left. Ideas?

More pictures next time I post. I have been out of school since Monday {fuuuuuck yeah!} so I have had a lot of time to craft in general, and thus have shit to take pictures of. :)

Needless to say [but I am saying it anyway?] that is a swatch and then the ensuing sock. If I wasn't so lazy they would have been posted with the usual swatch-to-garment timeline one has. But I have been crazy busy. I was at Michael's last Friday, after guilt-tripping my mom into taking me, and picked up some Moda Dea Sassy Stripes yarn in the "stormy" colorway. I like how it looks almost like Fair Isle. I'm not sure if it's supposed to look like that or that is how it just managed to line itself up. I'm thinking a little of both. Anyway, I am using the Pippi Kneestockings pattern from SnB. (I think that is the name of it. Something like that at least. And I have been knitting from those books a lot lately. I feel like a knitting n00b or something!) This sock is coming along great, I am about to start the toe in the next round or two. My gauge was a little bit bigger than the pattern called for, which I figured would be good because I have big calves* and fairly wide feet. And boy was I right. I have burned right through this sock, and have taken it everywhere with me; I love the portability.

I just realize I still have not taken pictures of my finished Mariah. Someday, I guess.

I had a dance competition this weekend that went horribly. I placed in one dance out of eight. I only placed because I was one of only six girls that got through the dance, and thus placed by default. A total bummer. Especially considering I was really excited about the dances I was doing on Sunday. (Jig, Hornpipe, Blue Bonnets, and Village Maid in case by some weird chance a Highland dancer ends up reading this. And they were all cut steps.) So, needless to say I was in a shitty mood the rest of the day. It is really a terrible feeling to feel like you did well in something but have the results reflect otherwise. I was definitely really down on myself and dancing for a bit. Anyway, I danced all day Saturday in the heat, and then went to a great show and partied for a while, not getting home until 3am. I had to get up at 11, and I am the kind of girl who likes her sleep, so I knew I was going to be tired but said what the hell, I only live once and I am going to have some fun. The next morning my mom wakes me up at 10:30 and tells me to get ready, etc. I call my boyfriend and tell him to get up because he is coming to my competition to watch me dance. So we all get up. Get ready. Go. I compete. Mess up. Cry.  Don't place. MURDER my feet and am in worst pain ever. Go to Wendy's {yum!}. Go home. Notice sunburn. End up going to hangout with boy at 11:00 at night, and almost tell him I am too tired. Halfway through the car ride to his house, he pulls out the roses you see to the left since we have been together a month! I was too preoccupied with my competition and all that to really even think about it. What a sweetheart. I was so surprised/excited/happy! My day went from super fun, to beyond shitty, to just plain wonderful.  To the right is my roses again, and you can kind of see my sock in the background. Yeah. I am drying them because I adore dried flowers. [/gush]

Gratuitous cute doggy picture:

Take that everyone with "oh isn't my kitty so cute, look at him play with my yarn. oh he's so fluffy and darling! what a furry little shitbag" pictures!

*When I say I have big calves let me put that in perspective for you. I was thinking about this the other day. I have had to measure my calves a number of times to get argyle knee socks made to match my kilt for my Highland costume. They are about 15" around. (which is the maximum circumfrence you can have to get seam-free tartan hose from the sock maker I use. Regardless, I like fully-fashioned more.) I was thinking about that last week, and somehow Gone With The Wind popped into my mind, and I realized that Scarlett O'Hara's waist is 18" around, pre-baby! Now, I know she was crammed into a corset, probably with a fractured rib or two, but shit! I feel like an Amazon. I routinely have a hard time getting tight pants off/over my calves. And they're really not even that big, especially for a dancer