The Monkey Feet

I have been on vacation since Dec 22, so needless to say I haven't had much chance to knit a whole bunch, nor have I had much chance to write about the little bit of knitting I have been doing. I've still been working on Mr A's socks and have been trying them on my feet as well as his with every couple of rows. I have come to realize that making socks for myself is easier than making socks for him. I tell him he has monkey feet since they are bigger than mine and his big toe is probably the size of my pinky finger (yes, I have small fingers, but that is besides the point). Last time I tried the socks on myself I would be about to the point of turning the heel (toe up). When I shove the socks on his big feet, I still seem to have anywhere between 3-4 inches left before thinking about heels. Sigh!!! ;) Since I have been knitting these both at the smae time (and since the cats had decided a few weeks ago that it would be fun to drag them out of my knitting bag and play with them) I have been keeping the two balls of yarn in their own little ziplock baggies. It has actully been working out very well this way. I can take the little baggies and socks with me places and not worry about getting tangles. Especially as I am using more and more of the yarn and the balls are becoming looser and looser, I don't get so many tangles since it is all confined.
Before I left home, one of my friends was vrey kind to give me a gift certificate to Flying Fingers. In April of this year, I had bought a few balls of Karabella Breeze in Camel and of course didn't get quite enough for me to make anything with. So I held onto the yarn while I figured something out. With this gift certificate, I bought two additional balls of the yarn. I figured I would get two different dye lots and hoped that the colors weren't too far off. Lucky me, I ended up getting the same dye lot I had with the other balls. Much to my amazament. Maybe Karabella Breeze doesn't have many dye lots? I don't know how it works, I just know that I ended up very happy.
For Christmas, Mr A bought me the KnitPicks interchangable needle set. He bought me just the starter set, with no extra cords, tips, or circular needles. The cords are so cool! When I open them up, they actually stay straight and don't re-curl on themselves. I am really excited to try them, but I only have sock yarn with me and the tips only go down to US4, so I will just have to wait until I get home to start fidgeting with how they actually do while knitting things.
That is about all that has been going on knitting wise out here. I wanted to check out a knitting store in Palm Beach County, but I haven't even had time to stop in one. I've been too busy meeting up with all of my old friends who still live here. And needless to say, I haven't been dancing while out here. I haven't been stretching really, either and that is something I should be doing. Oh well.
Happy New Year, all!

Gift Questions

My SP9 Hostess posted these questions to the people in her group since a number of gift giving holidays are approaching. I found the answers that my pal gave me were very amusing, and I wanted to find out from everyone who reads this (whether I know you or not) what your answers to these questions are. If there needs to be, give back stories! I'd love to find out the variety of responces, just leave your answers as a comment :o)

1) the oddest gift you have ever received (not asked for)
2) the oddest gift you ever asked for
3) the oddest gift you ever gave
4) the worse gift you ever got

Mr A's Socks

Just after finishing the Boise shawl, I had begun wokring on socks for Mr A out of some nice orange blends of Trekking sock yarn. I had maybe 2 inches of pattern done when I set them aside in favor of working on the two Christmas gifts (which are now completed). Last week some time, I came home and found an orange trail leading from my living room to my bedroom where a large bundle of yarn had ended up; wouldn't you believe it was the cats' favorite sitting spot. Hmm I wonder how it got there. They had done this a second time to another ball of yarn I had and was measuring for a future project. Sheesh! I hadn't knit anything since finishing the Daigonal Lace scarf on Thursday. I decided that tonight while I have some time and was not rushing to complete something travel related, that I would begin unraveling the mess the cats made. It took about an hour, but the yarn is unraveled and in knitable condition. I might need little containers to keep my yarn in while I knit so that cats can't run off with it so easily.
I did get a chance to knit a few rows as celebratory reward for fixing my problem, and it was very interesting to be using US1 needles instead of the US8 that I was using for both of the scarves. But I am very happy to be able to knit these socks again. Woo hoo! These will definitely be going on the plane with me to work on.

Finished: Diagonal Lace Scarf

Thursday night I plowed through the remainder of the Diagonal Lace Scarf for Mr A's mom. I made it out of Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb. I blocked it that night and Friday morning when I checked the blocking preocess, it was finished! The yarn was so much softer and so nice. I almost want to keep it. :o)

Before blocking:







And the close up of the stitches.

And now that pictures have been taken, I can wrap it and send it off! Yai!

Unfortunately since finishing this scarf and the Danica scarf I have been slightly unmotivated to work on the socks for Mr A. This was not helped by my coming home one day last week to find the yarn stretched all the way from the bag in the living room to inside my bedroom. This resulted in me shoving long tangled strands of yarn back in the knitting bag. I am not looking forward to fixing that. But I do need to have something to knit while on the plane to Florida.

I owe pictures

So I was feeling lazy on taking pictures of the WIP scarf for Mr A's mom, and decided only to take the pictures of the Danica scarf. Mr A was kind enough to model for me to take some action shots of the scarf.


I stretched the scarf only slightly so that it would lay somewhat flat. I figured the stitches would pull and puff back up to a fraction of what it was pre-blocking, and I was right. While blocking, it smelled like wet animal (ew) but now it smells like a normal scarf should... ie, not like animal. It is also nice adn soft, and thinner than it was preblocking. Woo! I am done! I have no more ends to weave in!
Merry Christmas, Mr.D

Danica FO!!

I realize I have been pretty bad lately about updating. I have finished the Danica scarf! It was difficult because I kept losing focus for it. In the beginning, it was interesting because something was always changing and it was fun to be learning a new skill. But once I was slightly over half finished, I realized that since I was changing colors VERY frequently it was going to be a pain to weave in all the ends. Being overwealmed by the end weaving, I had set it down for days at a time. Since this scarf is a gift, I had to force myself to pick it back up and finish it. I used some of my very tall friends to help guage what size it should be, since I am under 5'5", and it is intended for someone who is 6'3". The scarf is currently being locked off in another room blocking, behind closed doors so that the cats don't find it to be the perfect napping place. I'll post pictures once the blocking is complete, hopfully to be modeled by my slightly taller than I husband, Mr A. I am sure he will be thrilled ;)
I have already begun a scarf that I am making for Mr A's mom. She has been saying for a long time that she needs a scarf that will go well with her black coat, and I decided to make a Diagonal Lace Scarf for her out of Lorna's Laces Lion & Lamb, mixed berries color. This scarf is going very quickly and looks fabulous. It too will have to be blocked before being sent, since as I knit it, it is curling into a tube. Pictures of the progress on this scarf will be posted with the Danica photos.