sockdarnit!

A bunch of my hand knit socks had holes in them, due to those pesky moths. After reading a bunch of posts on Ravelry about darning technique, I sat down with my needle and got to work.

Not great looking, but not too bad either. At least the yarn matches.

These socks were hiding in the stash pile, and had holes before I'd even worn them!! Luckily the holes were small and easy to fix.

This giant combination of holes intimidated me, though, and I haven't tried to tackle it yet.

It requires more than darning: cutting out the stitches and knitting a patch. I'm not ready for that quite yet.

turkish cast on.

I'm bookmarking this so that I can use it for my next pair of socks:

Turkish Cast On Tutorial from misocrafty.

Found via the Sock Knitters group on Ravelry.

good friday.


Some progress on the For the Love of Socks KAL: 2 socks on 2 circs. I think I'm the only person who started the KAL... oh well, it's slow going so I'm sure the others will catch up to me once they start! I've been sick and watching a lot of TV and thus getting some knitting done, although I feel pretty gross from all the bad TV!


I had ripped out my first attempt at these socks because they were too big. I made sure to line up the stripes properly this time, and cast on 56 stitches instead of 60. 52 would probably be better but I was afraid of them being too small. It will be interesting to see how the heel will go! (I haven't read ahead in the pattern. It will be a surprise!)

the front is done!

I have finished knitting the front of the knit.1 jumper. Yay! Next up is knitting the neck and armhole edging, and I am going to block the pieces before doing that. (which I will put off for several days because blocking sucks) Then seaming up and ta da! I will have a (hopefully) wearable FO.

getting close.


I am almost finished the front of the knit.1 jumper. Just a few more inches on the straps. Maybe I'll actually get to wear it this winter!

old FO's.

I was cleaning out my armoire the other day and decided to "free" some old sweaters (i.e. give to charity). These gems are my first knitted sweaters, from 2002-2003.


The pattern called for stockingette stitch, but I decided to do garter instead. It kinda looks like chain mail. I wore it a few times after I finished it, but it’s been at the bottom of the armoire for the past few years. The cat has been sleeping on it, and you can see in the photo where her nails have pulled the yarn.


Pattern: Quick Pullover Vest from Yarn Lover's Room
Yarn: Grey acrylic


This boxy beauty is another ugh. A co-worker gave me a copy of Interweave Knits for Christmas, which was a super awesome gift as I'd never seen the magazine before. Such stylish sweaters! Models that look like cool people! Unfortunately I didn't know anything about substituting yarns and used an acrylic boucle instead of the called-for cotton. Plus it was my first sweater so my knitting skill was not great.

This was never worn. The neckline is funny and one of the shoulder seams is puckered. The yarn does not frog easily (it was recycled from a previous project) so this is going to the give-away pile. Maybe someone less fortunate will wear it, or some poor soul will buy it to re-use the yarn.

Pattern: Straight Neck Pullover by Suss Cousins, from Interweave Knits Winter 02/03 (re-printed from Hollywood Knits)

cats and cards.

I don't have any knitting related content to share. Last night I worked a few rows on the 2 socks on 2 circs for the KAL, but it was literally 4-5 rows which doesn't look like much on 2.25 mm needles! My boss is away for the rest of the week so I hope to get some knitting done at work... shhhh don't tell.

Here is some filler content: photos of the cats and some envelopes I stamped for thank-you cards.

Oxo snoozing in his favourite spot on the couch.

Roxy in the same spot (the lamp is toasty warm).

Sharing the favourite spot. I would like to take a nap RIGHT NOW.

I'm very proud of these cards. They are simple but the stamps add a nice touch. (definitely nicer than my chicken scratch!) I chose different colours on the envelopes to match the cards, and the message inside the card was stamped as well. The stamps are from Michaels.

busy busy.

This week has been a whirlwind of activity. T-man has his first art show in the city at Steam Whistle Brewing, and he's been getting ready for the past few weeks. I took the day off work on Tuesday to help hang artwork, and it was a full day on my feet helping our neighbour TK who was doing most of the actual hanging. (I was holding the ladder - not very exciting but important.) I missed bellydancing class that day, but went to troupe practice from 8-10 pm. I couldn't skip it as we are performing on Saturday night! So Tuesday was a very long day.

The opening reception for the art show was on Wednesday night and I went there right after work. (I was actually glad to be at work all day where I could relax!) It was a lot of fun, there was good turn out, but it is exhausting talking to people. And trying to say hi to everyone I should say hi to while making my friends feel welcome and not walking away in the middle of a conversation. It's hard to manage! I'm not very good at mingling. LOL. Anyway, after the show we went for a drink with T-man's friends which was hilarious. These guys are crazy. By the time I went to bed it was 2 am and I still had to get up for work the next day. I'm too old for that! ha ha.

Thursday I was super tired and didn't go to the gym for my favourite class. :( I was afraid of tripping on the step, and that class is intense. I used my lunch break to knit instead. Right after work T-man and I went for dinner with his parents at Epicure (veggie burger yum yum) but I had to run out early to meet E. to rehearse for our upcoming performance. After we practiced, we went to the Second Cup to get some sweet treats, which was a GREAT idea, thanks E! T-man and I watched a movie (Sunshine) and then I went to bed. Exhausted. I should have gone to bed early instead of watching the movie. Whoops.

Tonight I am meeting E. for some costume stuff right after work, then hopefully picking up some new contact lenses, then hopefully eating a good meal and doing laundry and a pedicure! Maybe sit on the couch and work on my socks which I frogged and cast on again. (they were going to be too big.)

I am looking forward to next week when all the events are over and done with, and we can get back to real life. T-man has been working on the art show and I've been getting ready for the performance (rehearsing and last weekend I was shopping for costuming), so we haven't had a lot of time for regular stuff. We need to do a big grocery shopping trip! Laundry! Make some good food! Play with the cats!