Socks for Lorri

These socks were sent to the UK, and since my friend has received them, I must share photos!

Pattern: Hermione's Everyday Socks by Erica Lueder
Yarn: Zitron Trekking XXL
Needles: 2.25 mm
Modifications: Magic Loop

The texture is hard to see in the first photo, but you can see it above. I think this pattern benefits with a lighter color yarn :)

This was my 13th pair of socks for the year!

Halloween swap!

Wheeee! A fabulous package from my stitch marker swap partner:

My partner added a TON of extra Halloween treats for me :) Some of the items she sent me:

cute flag :)

these are the greatest stitch markers!!

And I love this reversible bag she made:

Daybreak in progress

Halloween and something for the rest of the year:

so cute!!!

I just wanted to share these great items with you :) My partner was a great swapper and I am overwhelmed by her generosity and thoughtfulness <3 br="br">

xx

Today our furnace was replaced because our landlord wanted us to have a new one (the old one was over 30 years old but still worked. Just not very efficiently :) ). Now we have a high tech, fancy thermostat with programmable temperatures for when we leave and return home, and it's supposed to be much more efficient. The installers warned me that the first time it kicks on, it would set the smoke alarms off. And it did. I had all the windows open and every fan going, and I was running back and forth fanning them for what seemed like a long time (for the record, they are really loud). I am so thankful our landlord decided to replace it because I think this is a really good furnace :)

And I am officially signed up to take classes in January, yahoo!

Goodnight, early rise tomorrow :)

LP

Anybody else as obsessed with this song as I am?



Today has been full of grocery shopping, cleaning and organizing the pantry, laundry, and now, finally, knitting and football :) 

Halloweening

Last night was Books Crafts Wine Snacks Club and as always, it was fabulous. Autumn held it at her house and she is the best hostess of us all:

so festive and spooky!

These quinoa cakes are amaze-balls!!! As soon as Autumn sends out the recipe link I will post it here because they are fantastic! I could have eaten the whole plate:

how cute are these napkins and plates!? and the ghost mug hehe

We celebrated Abbey's birthday too! No candles, but we all sang a very spirited Happy Birthday to her :)
(our singing needs work)

do you see the bloody handprints on the glass? scaaaaary!

 Autumn made a red velvet cake and used GLITTER icing! 

cute decorations

I was the only one who crafted, though I suspect other girls brought something and just didn't bring it out... These mittens are part of KnitPsycho's Finish or Frogtober KAL on Ravelry:

As the name suggests, for the KAL you must either finish or frog an unfinished object that was started before September 1 of this year. No problem, since I started these October 2011! All they need is the green double stitching.

We began discussion on our book Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and will finish discussing it at next meeting since not everyone had time to finish it. I am really eager to know what the other clubbers think about the ending.

That's all for now, Happy Thursday!

WIP Tuesday

I had planned to type this tomorrow, when it will actually be WIP Wednesday (and sounds better), but I am working in the morning so I'd rather write it tonight.

Right now I have two major WIPs, one is this afgahn:

I have almost knit six skeins, and will probably buy one more to add a little length. It's not a very large blanket, not something for the bed, but it's the perfect thing to cozy underneath on the couch :)

and the other WIP are my Cakewalk socks. I haven't made a lot of progress on them since their last photo so I won't post another :)


Tomorrow night is Book Club!! I will be sure to take a lot of photos of everyone's crafts and of the food :)

Diagonal Lace Socks

Of course, I decided to take photos after I blogged about them yesterday :) 

Pattern: Diagonal Lace Socks by Wendy Johnson
Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll Tonal in Harvest Tonal
Needles: US 0
Method: Magic Loop and toe up
Modifications: At the cuff I decreased to 64 stitches per sock to knit a 2x2 rib because the socks are a bit loose. I probably could have omitted one lace repeat. There is also an errata in the pattern. On even rounds, you should knit the knit stitches and purl the purl stitches; I just knit even because I found the errata when I was halfway through the socks and didn't want to change :)

The pattern is free on Ravelry as a preview for her book Socks From the Toe Up. I own the book as well, and am really looking forward to knitting more patterns from it! Even though these socks took me several months to complete, they took me out of my sock knitting comfort zone but I love how they turned out. They were a great project for when I wanted something that required a bit more concentration but didn't need my entire focus.

I am so happy it's the weekend! Enjoy friends!

FOs and books, but no FO photos...

Hi friends,

I thought I'd check in even though I don't have too much to show you yet. Thanks for your lovely comments of support and advice on my last post, they were so nice! I am still very nervous about teaching but I know with more experience I will gain confidence.

In the past week, I have finished two pairs of socks! One is the Diagonal Lace Socks that I started so long ago, and the other pair is for my friend Lorri. I haven't taken photos of either pair yet, but I will not forget to snap some before I send Lorri's socks to her! They turned out beautifully and I really hope they fit.

I cast on this pair a few days ago:

ssss

with the fabulous Cakewalk Yarn I purchased from my podcast friend, Amanda at Knitting Psychos. They will be nice and plain stockinette socks. 

I also received this wonderful San Fransisco/German care package from my cousins:

They are expecting their first baby and I knit them a baby blanket. This box of chocolates and coffee was a thank you from them :) Right now they live in California so I don't see them very often, but I am getting excited about knitting baby things now that I know it's a boy ;)

In other news, I'm voting via absentee ballot for the first time this year, and I just got my ballot! They didn't send me a I Voted sticker though... I've also started several new books. One is Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project, which I've skimmed a lot. I borrowed it from the library which was a good decision. I think the problem I have with it is the pace and her writing approach. The writing itself is good, it's just that what it says doesn't excite me. She says she spent a year researching first before writing The Happiness Project, which seems weird to me. Happiness doesn't need research does it? Her research appears in the first chapter in the form of quotes and thoughts from famous dead people. I also have a problem with her dialogue recreations; if this is a book about a past journey, why include dialogue? It feels fake since it's absurd to think we can remember an exact exchange of words between two people that happened years ago -- and I realize we're probably not supposed to take it word for word, but I don't like it. This book would be better without dialogue. /rant (funny how talking about The Happiness Project did not make me happier...)

I'm also reading Mariana by Susanna Kearsley, which was the Kindle Daily Deal the other day. It's a time transportation book. In this case, the main character goes to 17th century England. I really enjoy this kind of book so I'm sure I will like this one.

Did I tell you I finished Gone Girl? Ultimately I didn't like it because the ending was so disappointing! That's all I will say. 

Berny masters the back leg face palm

I didn't mean to write so much, especially about The Happiness Project... if you have read it, I would like to know what you thought!  

 Bye for now, TGIF :)

Big decisions

Some of you might know, I've told a few, that I am going back to school for my English teaching degree! It's something I thought about while in school, and then after I graduated, and then now, while I'm just working. I am just not content with my job, even though it leaves me plenty of time to read and knit, which I've thoroughly enjoyed and will miss. My parents and friends and boyfriend have been supportive, which has been beyond super.

I can start taking classes this January and then hopefully be accepted into the College of Education. In the meantime, I will be filling out my application and trying to volunteer to work with youth. That is one of the factors in being admitted, your experience working with kids. And since I don't have much experience I'm eager to find some.

Well, I guess it's pretty much official, now that I've blogged about it ;)

Hope you are all enjoying your weekend!

Nom nom

I pretty much died when I saw these knitted candy corn on the Purl Bee and I had to knit some:

Super easy and each little candy corn only took me about thirty minutes.

Pattern: Candy Corn! by Whitney on the Purl Bee
Yarns: I was lucky I had all the right colors in my stash! Three different yarns: Patons (white), Cascade 220 (orange), and Knit Picks Wool of the Andes (yellow)
Needle: US 6, magic loop
Modifications: The first one I knit to pattern, but the second and third I modified the placement of increases to k1, m1r, k3, m1l... etc, mainly because I knit using Magic Loop, so it's easier to m1 after knitting one

So cute, right? I want to make a whole basketful!