Socks, Socks, Socks!

I am still sick. This is getting to be ridiculous.

Enough complaining, let's get to the meat of this post and play with my socks, socks, socks!!

TA DA!! Stuff that's DONE!

Anyway, I've got some nice pictures to show you. First up, FOs. The Jaywalkers! Pay no attention to the bathrobe covering the legs there. I told you I was sick. Also, I finished them around midnight so I was all set for bed! YAY! TWINS! Aren't they lovely? I liked them more after they were completed.





Pattern: Jaywalkers by Grumperina!
Started: July 5, 2007
left to age properly for months
Completed: November 17, 2007
Magic Looped, two at once
Knitpicks - Size 1.5
84 sts casted on, I enlarged the pattern but didn't really need to-heels and toes reinforced wth wooly nylon. I used blue and you can see it a little around the heel. This stuff is great! I have enough to last my entire lifetime now.
Yarn: Austerman Step.

Next up, the Spindle socks for DH.


Pattern: Spindle from More Sensational Knitted Socks
Started: October 15, 2007
Completed: November 16, 2007
Magic Looped, two at once
Knitpicks - Size 1.5
70 sts casted on
Yarn: Dale of Norway, Baby Ull that I bought in Saratoga!
Heels and toes were reinforced with wooly nylon in black, can you see it?
Comments: ahh! Soft like a baby's ear!

Note on these: I had less than NINE YARDS left when I completed these. WHOA BABY! And they're not really that big. They're not snug, they're really just right. That lovely yarn went fast!

Oh, and what have we here? This is my latest endeavor, Stansfield #16 from More Sensational Knitted Socks, Knitpicks Options size 1.5 (that would be a 1 but I call them 1.5, they're the 2.50 mm ones.) 64 sts cast on, STR in Ruby Slippers. I started these on November 19th. I love the colors but I am not crazy about the striping of this yarn. Being anal, I divided the ball and made it match.. somewhat...


Well, it's Thanksgiving Eve, time to pack up the kiddies and take them to work with me for a special event!

Weekend Update

Still sick, went to a baptism today.

For those of you paying attention, Jaywalkers AND Spindle Socks are done, see sidebar!

Pictures coming shortly.

This wouldn't be interesting without a picture! Here's one taken nearly a full year ago! That's Elizzabetty and my children, winding the yarn for the hooded Danbury.
Fascinating....

Myths & Legends

To get the flu shot or not? Every year, I get a flu shot. DS and I have asthma. I do not want to get the flu. Having had the flu in the past, it is truly an unpleasant experience. So, I get the shot.

I will not bore you with the controversy but everyone has their opinion on this. "My wife got the flu shot and died that night" "I got mono from the flu shot" "The flu shot nearly killed me". But seriously, it is hard to link the flu shot to these things in most cases.

I got the flu shot Thursday at 4PM. I got a sore throat at 5:30 PM. On Friday, cold symptoms, feeling ok, runny nose. Friday night at 9PM, congested, badly congested. This morning, worse.

Coincidence? Myth or Legend?

In any event, DD and DS are at karate. I have exactly 30 minutes of sanctuary. DH is off teaching music lessons for the next 5 hrs. I am going to have to entertain the children in a little while. I think we'll make cookies or an apple pie or more soap.

I should be napping. Or knitting.

Onward to other things. This morning, I read some blogs, finally. I am happy that the harlot has some nice sweater pictures amont the little snowflakes. Ah, beauty of nature. I am sad that Grumperina has to rip out those lovely Bavarian socks. They're gorgeous! I am proud of Elizzabetty for posting everyday, even if it gives all of her readers a beautiful shot of my triple chin. It's called a 'waddle', isn't that what a turkey has? My mother had it and even my little daughter has it. We're fat necks. I wonder what Katherine Hepburn was hiding under that scarf? I suppose I could have it sucked out with liposuction but that's not something I would do. I remember when someone I worked with did it though and it looked great, after a month. She came back to work 10 days after the procedure and looked like she went 10 rounds with Sonny Liston.

In addition to feeling crappy, I got my braces tightened and three braces replaced. The two front teeth and one tooth are killing me. I am sneezing, have sore teeth and tired. A perfect day to knit!

Well, thank you everyone for listening to my complaints. Now, let me show you my stuff! My currently unfinished objects. Socks without toes! First up, Jaywalkers. Nearly done. Twins. Need toes. I have been working on these for months. I have recently unknit the toes and need to fix them and finish these once and for all.

Ah, the lovely spindle socks. So, what do they need? To be kitched. You'd think that I would finish them?

The lovely and beautiful Iris Afghan. Photographed for you in natural light in my messy room. You can see DD's little sweater in the pile of junk behind my glider. I love this afghan. I am sure that baby-to-be will like it very much as well.

Elizzabetty on the LIRR, fall leaves whizzing by. (she has one of me and I have one of her. The other riders thought we were tourists instead of seasoned commuters.) Below, Stansfield #12, commuting to NYC, with train ticket!

Stay tuned for more exciting pictures tomorrow in which I flash my stash and complain some more!

New Picture Wednesday! Tofutsie Time!

We went away for Columbus Day weekend this year. For those of you outside of the Northeast, we've been having a massive warm front. In fact, the south shore of Long Island openned the beaches, lifeguards and all, this past weekend. Everyone here enjoyed record breaking heat in the high 80's. We were in Lake George and Saratoga, 240 miles away from here and it was warm and beautiful.

My son was very happy that he grew to be 42 inches tall and was finally big enough to ride one of the grown up rollercoasters at the Great Escape! DD was unhappy that she wasn't big enough and is now faced with an entire year of eating broccoli so that she'll grow a bit.

Now for some nice pictures. Blogger won't let me upload these in massive giant size so we'll have to make due with small ones.

First we have a view of Lake George through the mighty oaks on the grounds of Fort William Henry in Lake George Village, NY. Sadly, leaves weren't at peak color yet...

The second picture is of one very scary 'ride' called the Skycoaster. That pole is 175 feet tall. There is a dock located several feet in front of it where they load people. The people are strapped in (1, 2 or 3 together) and then hoisted up on a cable. They're on a bungee cord and they're pulled diagonally to near the top of the pole, or as they say, "165 feet is the launch point". And then, it's free fall. They just...drop you. The second group of people went head first and then they went into the swing, like a pendulum. Eventually, you're reeled in like a fish......you grasp onto this loop at the end of a pole. The whole thing scared me and made my palms sweat and my heart race and I was merely a spectator.
These are my kiddies at Bolton Landing, NY, saying CHEESE. They didn't go on the Skycoaster but she wanted to! GEEZ!!
Another view of Lake George Village from Fort William Henry, some color is there!











Here's Tofutsie socks at Saratoga, going to the Spa!










Not to be outdone, the Jaywalker twins were there as well. I spent part of the ride up un-knitting the toes of these in hopes that I will finish them up very soon. The Tofutsies are on the foot part and I could sail through them very quickly now that the gusset decreases are done. In order to satisty my need for wool, I hit the yarn shop in Saratoga. Its a very nice shop and I got some Lang Jawoll and Baby Ull. The Baby Ull is steel gray, not as blue as it looks in that picture. I am going to make another pair of socks for my dear husband in the Baby Ull. Something nice, ribbed and manly; they'll have reinforced heels and toes. I haven't selected the pattern yet but retro-ribbed socks from one of the books I have (Favorite Socks?) is a possibility. We'll see.

Speaking of socks, I have elaborated even more on knitting two socks at once. I was putting one on a holder to get through the gusset but I think that I've solved that problem. I put part of the sock on a DPN and I'm able to turn once when I start the gusset and once again at the end of the gusset decreases. When I finished up, both socks were on the needle, instep on the back, sole on the front, ready to sail through the foot. I didn't have the reinforcing yarn with me. If you're reinforcing, you'll need to have two spools of reinforcing thread. I think I could devise a way to keep them both on the needle, so one entire heel with reinforcing thread and then switch over to the other and do the same. hmmmn...when I figure all of this out on my next pair of socks, I'll post how I did it. I'll try it again and this time: DOCUMENT for future reference.

Coming home from vacation took a very long time. Long enough for me to get through alot of my socks while DH drove. Unfortunately, there were several accidents on the road. One person turned a camper on its side, closing the road entirely. We had to drive on the grass. It appeared that no one was hurt badly, thank goodness.

I leave you now with one last photo. Only a few short hours earlier I was in beautiful Lake George. Alas, sunset over the Whitestone Bridge. Even the Bronx and Manhattan are beautiful at sunset.

Jaywalkers again!

It's nearly mid-week so it's time for the mid week post, sorta. I overslept this morning and I'm thinking that I don't have too much time to knit so instead I will show you my cake and my Jaywalkers. With my 12 megapixels, you can almost taste it. Those chocolate goo things dripping down the sides were particularly delicious and look wonderful on my hips. The Nutrisystem Bear was sitting there frowning at me.

Segue into looking wonderful on my feet, I'm back to finishing up the Jaywalkers. They're my current only project other than sewing together the blue hooded raglan sweater that has been sitting in a plastic bag on my rocking chair upstairs for the entire summer...anyway...

They're still twins but now I'm off by about 18" of yarn. I will try working one sock a little tighter and one a little looser. I am not anal enough to cut out 18" from one and hide the ends. The color changes on the same row, just a few sts apart now, not the same stitch as we had in the beginning. It's time to start yelling "Wire, wire!" Here's another shot of the latest progress:

I have another five or six rows and it'll be time for the toe decreases. Notice brown red, skinny brown then blue around the ankles opposite the heel flaps. I am going to learn how to do the forethought heel next. The one from one of the Charlene Schurch's books, I think Sensational Knitted Socks. I'll practice it on something that isn't so expensive and I'll do it for real on my nice Trekking. Hmmn....It doesn't really look too hard but I'm not up to it right now. I'm just happy that the stripes really do match up nicely. I am also just tickled pink that I'm doing two at once and there is no second sock syndrome. They're both done at the same time. On this pair, I'm considering not reinforcing the toes. I generally don't wear socks out at the toe, just the heel. Plus, I can't finish them at the same time if I do that. I'll think about it today.

Next sock is going to be Sailor's Ribbing from More Sensational knitted Socks in Tofutsies. I expect to finish the Jaywalkers tonight and possibly cast on for the Tofutsies. The (@^! is starting to hit the fan at work, we're nearing busy time and I may be putting in more hours, including some at home but we'll see. No reason for the socks to suffer, right?

These colors are kinda growing on me but they still remind me of a flag that should be in the Olympics from some small country that no one knows of, far far away...But I guess I like them. I think that I'll like them more when it's fall and I'm thinking fall colors. I love fall, it's my favorite season. I am looking forward to playing with my camera alot, taking pictures of leaves and pumpkins and my beautiful kiddies.

Speaking of beautiful kiddies, I am starting to cry every time I think about number one baby, DS, heading out to Kindergarten in only a few short weeks. The Big K. He has his little backpack and his truck lunchbox and all his school supplies and he's ready to go. I don't remember school supplies being a big deal when I was a kid. My mom bought me a red schoolbag (no backpacks back then!) a pencil case and some pencils and a notebook for writing. Nowadays, you invest a small fortune. Our school is smart, they package everything up and shrinkwrap it for you. Every kid has the same thing, the teachers are happy, no one has to shop. I wrote a check to the PTA (only $31) and got a big box of stuff! I'll show you next time!

As for now, it's time to hit the rockpile, there are license plates to be made today!

It's Soup!

It's Soup!? No, the Wallaby isn't finished. But, the new camera is in and I just HAVE to show you a few of the pictures that I took with it. Here is a picture of one of my Lillies. I think it's called "Star Gazer" or something to do with the Fourth of July, maybe, like "Liberty"? I forget. The detail is truly amazing. I cropped the picture to see what I would lose. Check it out! Makes for nice wallpaper on my desktop.

"Flowers at the Playground"
Go ahead, double click on it, zoom in. Do the same with the leaf. You can see things you didn't even know were there!!! I gotta find me a spider or some bugs to show you! WOW!

"Sunset at the Supermarket"

Check out the little tiny leaf..Isn't that the coolest??? Looka that detail! I call this shot "Leaf on Playground". That background is that rubbery stuff they have on the playground. Probably made out of recycled rubber. Kids don't play in sand and glass like I used to.

Unfortunately, I had to shrink the leaf picture in order to upload it, these files are gigunda. Really cool though, I love the camera!! Here's another small one of DS and DD, they were moving and it was sunset. This was taken moments before the sunset one above but I used the flash and backlight settings so it came out more 'day like'.

And, I leave you with, "Jaywalker Gusset".....

Now that I have this camera, all of you can find my mistakes! Darn it!

Socks on the Beach

As suspected, we hit the beach again today. According to the boat and beach report, the water was supposed to be 'rough' and the wave height was four feet. The wave height was a little shy of that and there wasn't much of an undertow. It was a little rough but more like 'choppy'. See: That's my little girl getting some water for her sand castle and my little boy is actually trying out body surfing for the first time. That's his little head bobbing up out of the surf on the left. They had a great time today and I'm exhausted.



Here's another shot of DD helping God as she scoops up a pail of water to bring it towards the sand.

I promised a picture of the twins and here they are working on their tan!

Here's another shot, Harlot Style!

Now, I know looking at my Jaywalkers is a really cool thing to do but I wanted to show you something even cooler! How about, coming home from the beach and actually seeing this?

The kids were amazed. The light turned red, the siren went off and we were second to the first car. They got a good view of the drawbridge going up. The boat that went through is not visible but it wasn't really all that big. It had things on top of it, like cockroach antlers and needed the space.

The camera was in the back of our minivan but I quickly unhooked my seat belt and dove back there for it so I would have a nice shot of the bridge to show you. There was plenty of time to do that before the bridge actually opened.

I can never get tired of wave watching. I love it! I like to be the front blanket, right on the edge so I can feel it, taste it, hear it and live in the salt spray. Ah!! Today, someone snuck down closer to the surf than I, parked themselves right in front of us..oh well... My husband, who I do love dearly, likes to go to the beach for an hour. I would stay for a good part of the day but he doesn't like to stay there all that long. :(

I'm sure we'll enjoy looking back at these beach shots come January so I'll be sure to take some more as there are more beach days to come!

Keep a watch out for mountain shots towards the end of next month. As for now, time to finish up the Wallaby Hood. Maybe I will spring for that nice new 12 megapixel Kodak camera that I've been admiring so we can take even better pictures.

Wallaby Hurray!

Before we talk about how Wonderful the Wallaby is, I want to tell you how wonderful the Long Island Power Authority is. The other day, we had a downed line. I don't know what kinda line, it seems that there are eight million lines now. There's power, phone, fiberoptic cable, Cablevision tv lines...whatever. So, it was in the street and we didn't want anyone to get hurt. They sent a truck right out and fixed it up for us. See what a good job they did?

Ahem...

So, anyway, I haven't really been working on the Jaywalkers, they're up to the heel flap, pictures soon. I did pick up my Wallaby. Now, I am making the LARGE size and my gauge is right on. It's not at all "ROOMY" as they indicate in the pattern. My husband can take a medium shirt although lately I've been buying large because..well, his chest has dropped a little...tee hee! But he is not what I would call LARGE by any stretch of the imagination. Here's what it looked like last night...

And here's this morning's work added to it. He's saying "HURRAY, YOU PICKED ME UP AGAIN AND NOW ALL I NEED IS A HOOD!!"

I think that I am going to go with the stockinette stitch hood for this but I'll ask hubby what he wants. I need to do two more rows of ribbing and then the increases for the hood. It's really a nice pattern, albeit small. I may make one for myself but I may make the extra large or go up a needle size, we'll see. So far, I changed two things on the pattern. One, the length. I don't think the sweater was long enough and his backside would be cold so I made it more hip length than waist length. I also made the sleeves a little longer, I made them to fit him. The shoulders are snug. This fits but not as I had wanted it to. I had one small problem so far with this pattern. The decreases in the yoke didn't work out evenly. You see, you place a marker at right side of sleeve, left side of sleeve each side. Then, you decrease two stitches at each marker every other row. Well, the number of stitches left on what was the sleeve goes down to two and the decreases didn't come out evenly so I wound up with two extra stitches after I did all the repeats called for. I fudged the pattern and it's mathematically correct and works but I shouldn't have had to do that. I didn't do the math but I don't see a place where I missed a decrease. I am 90% sure that I did it right. It doesn't matter, I made it work. The Yarn Harlot herself says that it's ok to do what works, right?

As for the pattern, sometimes it's chatty and I don't need that. It was fun to knit and I like the fact that there is very, very little finishing. You don't wind up with a sweater in pieces for eight or ten years until you feel like sewing it together one day. The drawback is that you may run out of yarn in a place where it is hard to sew in the ends without it showing. I did a good job, I must say...! You can also try it on as you go but who's going to rip out 800 rows of 268 sts, unless, of course, someone takes a scissor to it and cuts a hole half way down........

Stay tuned for the finished product as well as some Jaywalker pictures. Going to start a pink Cottonease Wallaby next...I think. Tomorrow, more beach, methinks!

Jaywalkers and Guppies

I don't know if I mentioned it, but I have two aquariums. They're both 36 gallon tanks. One houses guppies and the other gouramis. The guppy tank has been a mess lately. I can't figure out why the fish have such raggy fins. Then, I got to thinking that maybe the skunk loach. He's a sneak. I actually have two of them and here's a picture of one, hiding in the rock in his new home.

They're cute and small and the fish lady told me that they wouldn't bother my guppies. That store is no longer in business, I wonder why??? I'm nearly certain they did so I moved the two of them to the gourami tank. Thus far, no incidents of not playing nice with others. then again, I'm not so sure they would mess with some of these larger gouramis. Crappy picture, but this one is the biggest and practically rules the tank. He's beautifully marked and DH says, "That one is ready for the grill". Tankmates are smaller, see?

To replace the dead and tailess guppies, I got four pair of blond delta tail guppies. They have yellow tails. I got them yesterday and they had babies today. Here's a shot of the babies of my now deceased black tailed guppies and my newly acquired blonde guppies. Hard to see the new babies, they're small. The other larger ones are a few weeks older and almost ready to be released into the main tank.

I've had fish since my 11th birthday, on for the past seven years. It's good for the kids to see them and they make a relatively inexpensive pet. Last night, for the first time in my life, I witnessed my new guppy give birth. I was so excited. I ran for the camera but it happened so fast, I missed the shot. DS saw it and was thrilled. DH was there but he moves like molasses so he missed it. We are so happy that we're grandparents! We saw two babies being born. I think she had about 20 or so. I have rescued 13 so far.

As for my Jaywalker, they're really nice! I am sorry that I didn't put some yarn aside to make the heel and the the toe the same. Next pair, I will. I will knit the heel and toe out of a contrasting solid so I don't mess up the perfect stripes. Pictures to be posted soon!

A Surprise and Jaywalker Update

Yesterday, I was vacuuming. It's become a pastime of mine ever since we got Zoey. She has short hair and many people think that short hair is easy. Bonnie's hair is like human hair, comes right up. Bonnie is a Sheltie who is going to be 14 next week. Zoey's hair is everywhere and stuck to everything. Zoey is getting a bath tomorrow. It's easy to give her a bath. Oh, and did I tell you? The 'Little 20 lb Dog" has successfully gone through FOUR leashes. The last two would've held up to a Rottie. "up to 80 lbs". She's a PEANUT! However, she has a very strong mouth and has no problem snapping right through nylon. We bought her a chain, the kind you would put on a German Shepard. Now, we can go for a walk...if I am strong enough to tote the chain, it must weigh like 2 lbs.

Back to the story, I was vacuuming away, enjoying having a somewhat clean house and then..., what to my wondering eye should appear, but DD coming down the steps with a bound. Giggling with a smile ear to ear. In her clutches was none other than missing Lamby! Lamby is back!! "The Blue Fairy found my Lamby and brought her home!!!!" You would think it was Christmas Morning. It seems Lamby was stuck behind Dear Son's toy bin, pinned to the wall, and we couldn't see her. Oh well, the house got cleaned up during the search and that was a good thing.
DD is euphoric. She couldn't eat or sleep or let go of Lamby for the entire day.

As for the Jaywalkers, still identical twins....! I am not so sure that I like these socks. Why do I always feel that way, you ask? I think ever since I made the Rose Quartz Crosshatch Lace, nothing compares. The Jaywalker sock are nice and the colors are definitely growing on me. That brown is SOOOO dark that it's hard to knit at night. I love the pattern, it goes fast and it's fun to make stripes. It's even more fun to make stripes that match and please me as opposed to stripes that aggravate me. I guess there really isn't much to say about them. Almost everyone has made a pair and almost everyone has blogged about them. I will most certainly make a second pair. This is a perfect pattern to learn magic looping two socks at once because it's so easy.

As for my next sock project...I am entertaining the idea of one of the fair isle patterns or possibly using my Lorna's Douglas Fir for Embossed Leaves. I must finish up the Wallaby but it's supposed to be 94 tomorrow. It's only 78 now so maybe I will work on him tonight and Jaywalkers tomorrow.

Be back tomorrow with more ramblings.

Right on the Money!

Knitting stripes and matching them up, yeah, that's the ticket. Last night, I decided that I was going to bite the bullet and ensure that my Jaywalkers turned out to be as close to identical twins as they could be. So, I unravelled the entire skein of this. It started out as 100 grams. I rolled ball #1 up until it had six repeats of the four colors. Then, I didn't cut anything, but rolled up ball #2. I should've done a center pull by hand but that was poor planning on my part. Anyway, they weighed the same but I had to have another red and blue added to Ball #1 to get the midpoint. Sigh. Then I (well, we, I had to employ husband's help here) rerolled Ball #2, in the opposite direction and found the exact midpoint and snipped. One ball was a little heavier than the other and I had to trash a small piece of green so that I could start in the same exact place. Then, I measured out 50 inches from the color change and casted on 84 sts. I did 5 rows of ribbing. I used my extra needle and did the same thing. I then put them together, patiently ribbing away, hoping that the color change to red would wind up as close as possible to the exact same stitch...would it? Could it? If it did, could I possibly get identical twins? Or at least as identical as Mary Kate and Ashley (who are fraternal, you know, but they do look very much alike.) Let's see....That snippet of green is the only waste from the entire skein. Can you see where the change happened?

Not wanting to get my hopes up, I finished the ribbing and started zigzag pattern. It looked like the color change to blue was going to work......

OMG! Sometimes I scare myself......it's to the exact stitch. (Yes, I counted them....)

Today, I would like to thank all my high school math teachers for making me the mathematician that I am today.