Knitty Bitty Blog

Woo! Voting day! Despite all the scary stories of hours-long lines, we headed out to vote down at the community center. It was hopping! We waited all of about 5 minutes to get our ballots (maybe 7 people in front of us?), and were in and out in ten minutes.  Yay for small town living, eh?

Hey, guess what? I finally took some pictures!

These are the socks referenced here and here. They are scrumptious. I’m now working on two more pairs, in addition to my secret knitting and a lovely Hönkä (Ravelry link). The scarf? Is beautiful. It gets me all giddy and excited and “Hey, look at this - it’s so cool!” in a way that hasn’t really happened with my knitting in a while.

So, you know…look at it. Isn’t it cool? (It’s two-sided! The colors switch from background to foreground!)

This is what I’m working on tonight while we watch the networks call states for candidates with a whopping 0-1% reporting. Didn’t we learn our lesson about predictively calling the elections eight years ago? Anyway, it’s fun to listen to them go over and over and around and around the same few stories. Also - the numbers of younger and minority and otherwise usually disinterested voters is really cool.

Hey, remember these socks? I finished them. They are wonderful. Full details as well as pictures to come. Also, I finished a Christmas present. No pictures of that one for a while.

Oh, and guess what? I started another Christmas present.  No details there either.

But, I can share some things! On Sunday, The Studio had a Ravelry meet up and stash swap, and whoo-boy, I did good.  I snagged some stuff from Jo and Ana, as well as from another kind soul I don’t know. I brought a whopping 4 things from my (teeny-tiny) stash, and sold 3 of them - woo! The other ended up in the charity knitting donation bin, as my bags were full with the new-to-me goodness and I didn’t particularly want to bring the old stuff home. I have no pictures yet, but I have plans to take some. Soon. Really, I promise.

This weekend was an odd one. It was crammed full of family and general busy-ness, but I managed to get a bunch of quality needle time anyway. Of course, one of the projects I was working on is a gift project, so I can hardly say much at all about it, other than that I’m more than a third of the way through it (woo! it’s a quick project!). In other broadcastable news, I’m closing in on the Farfalle socks. The second sock is probably about two repeats from the end (40 rows, give or take), plus the ribbing, but I only did that for 9 rounds, I think, so that’ll go fast too. Then it’ll be on to the next pair of socks, but these are secret knitting, too. Oh dear. I’ll have to get something on the needles I can share!

Anyway, we spent the weekend at Seth’s grandparents’ house with his brother and his wife, as well as Seth’s uncle and his wife. Both brothers and uncle are within about 5 years of age, so it’s a good time when we all get together. The hanging with the g-parents part? Eh. It’s fine. His grandmother crochets. Then she shows me everything she’s working on. Each individual flower hexagon, every last granny square, oh, look, it’s hairpin lace/crochet - see how it is so lacey? See how it weaves? It’s so pretty, no? Oh, and here’s this thing I found*… I don’t know how it works, but maybe you can do it… It goes on for about an hour before she wears herself out. She means well, but I find I just have to put my smile and nod on autopilot and just keep working on my own project!

The highlight of the weekend? We went to church with his grandparents. It was a Baptist church. It was…not what I’m used to.

*It was some sort of needle (with an eye) finger crochet thing - you started by making a chain, then knitting/needling into each loop (so more like knitting) to make a new one, but it’s all held free except for the working stitch (more like crochet). I dunno. It was weird.

So - the sock I’m working on. It’s got a 20-row cable repeat that’s really the same two 10-row repeats offset by a few stitches. On the first sock I ended up doing the heel gusset decreases on the second half of the repeat, and so the cables were centered between the decreases. It looked good. On the second sock? Somehow, despite doing the exact same thing (or so I thought) (except to reverse the cables. duh.) the heel gusset decreaes coincided with the first half of the repeat, so the cables were right on top of the decreases. If I’d been thinking clearly, I’d have skipped the cables for a neater look. But, no, I went right on ahead. It looks weird. See?

First Sock (yay!)

Second sock (boo!)

Wednesdays are my day. After school, I don’t go home and fix dinner, or stay late and grade papers or plan the next day’s work. On Wednesdays, I go into the city to what may be my favorite yarn shop ever, and sit with my tribe, and knit.

I felt pretty guilty today, though. I was tired after being up too late last night. I’d had a rough day at work and it ended worse than it started. It’s the first week of tutoring, which in my naiveté I signed up to do three days a week. I was feeling like I really didn’t want to make the trip, even as I knew I would - it’s what I do.

Anyhow, I got home tonight to learn the shop was closed today, due to an emergency in the owner’s family. I hope everything is okay for her and hers, but I have to admit - I felt the tiniest bit of relief to not be going. Instead, I sat at home with the hubby. We watched a few episodes of Heros (catching up on last season), ate supper, and just hung out. It was most agreeable.

I’ve brought my Farfalle Socks to school, hoping to work on them as students begin their MAPS testing. I doubt I’ll have a chance to even look at them, but a girl can dream, right?

Update: So I did get to work on the socks! I got almost an entire repeat finished over the course of three classes. I’m almost finished with the gusset now, and about ready to start the short rows for the heel!