Yes, I've been bad. I worked on my Christmas knitting for all of 30mins so far this week. Last Friday, I had tired of knitting for everyone else, so I cast on for a pair of socks for myself! They're all I've been working on - in between all the "catch-up cleaning" I've been doing this week.
I love them - they're things of beauty, and I've decided, they're my birthday gift to myself. So, I don't feel guilty for working on them instead of the other 4 projects I have to finish by the 21st (of Dec.) :P
Bad Monkey!
Half of a FO
That's right! I finally finished that one sock!
I've also learned a new technique - kitchener stitch...
I'm just so glad to have this one sock done! I do have leftovers from this sock, so I know that there will be some from the other sock as well, which gave me an idea! Socks for Goober :) Perfect way to use up the leftovers so they don't end up kicking around in the yarn drawer for all eternity :)
After I finished the sock, I cast on for sock 1 of Hubby's sock. I've finished the cuff and am about an inch into the leg - hoping to get halfway done the leg today so I don't feel bad about not being able to work on it over the weekend.
Since I can't work on the sock, I'll use the majority of my weekend knitting time on the new Tuscany that I cast on for yesterday. Hopefully I'll manage to get a few repeats in this weekend!
Hurray for better days!
Today has been SO much better!
The yarn for Hubby's Gramma's Tuscany came in today, and it's BETTER than I expected! So, of course, I was SO excited about it, I HAD to start it! I love it, I Love it, I LOVE IT!!!!
Now, I would have LOVED to be able to knit this with the recommended sea silk, but unfortunately, the budget just wouldn't allow for a $75-ish whim. BUT, finding the PERFECT shade (this is her absolute FAVORITE colour, in exactly the right shade!), for $60 less - I'll take that!!
In other news, I have FINALLY started the toe of that darned sock! Yay! Should hopefully be done by the end of the night (fingers crossed!). Once that sock is done, because I'm starting to feel the time crunch coming, I'm going to go ahead and start sock one of Hubby's sock. I'll keep that as my day-time knitting (lovely mindless knitting that it is), and work on Tuscany in the evenings while Hubby is home. Yeah, I think that should work!
Can this craptastic day just PLEASE end already!?!?!! (Warning - Rants - yes, multiple!)
This. Day. Sucks. Seriously. So badly, it's given me a headache.
I started off the day at 5 am. This is not a normal "get up for the day" time, but occasionally is my son's "I'm frigging HUNGRY! FEED ME!" time. Today, I just couldn't get back to sleep. So, here I am, wide awake. Perfect time for knitting right? Turns out, not so much. My brain must not have been fully awake, because for some reason which is now escaping me, I decided that the foot of my dad's sock was too long. For some STUPID reason, I just pulled the needles out and started ripping back. This. Was. NOT. A. Good. Idea. Do you think I could manage to get the stitches back on the needles? No, of course not. So, I went and threaded in a lifeline a few rows back from the current rippage. THAT worked fine. However, discovering that I had ripped back over an inch more than I had needed to, not so fine! After this, I decided I was having a "brain is too stupid to cooperate with knitting" day, and dropped it.
After the kiddos were up for the day, fed and dressed (no disasters there, thank goodness), off to the store we went. As soon as I got 20 feet from the building, the wind hit us and I was EXTREMELY glad that Goober was in his snowsuit, and The Goof was wearing her winter jacket. I, however, was neither wearing a snowsuit nor a winter jacket. Just a fleece one, which the wind cut through like an icy cold knife. Not fun. Considering that I had managed to get both of the kids out of the door without any melt-downs or major difficulties (which, really, is a rarity - The Goof usually finds something to be "mad" about upon leaving the house). So, I just decided to go into "Suck it up, princess!" mode, and continued on.
Got to the mall which is practically across the street, went into the first store we needed to go into, to discover, while they ARE selling Christmas decorations, they, for some reason, are NOT currently selling the hooks which are required to HANG them (which, BTW, was one of my main reasons for leaving the house this morning). Ummm - where are their logic skills? Oh wait! That's right, the "Holiday" season is upon us! Oh, am I EVER glad that those things which require being bought are nearly all bought! Thank goodness I've massively planned ahead and nearly everything is done (well, except for the knitting, but I'm on it!). Anyways, lets get this train of thought back on track!
I got home to annoyance #4. Internet is out, modem lights are doing strange flashy things. Hmmm. Decide to give it awhile, figured out how to make hooks for decorations out of findings and jewelery wire. Finish helping The Goof decorate the big tree (it's after Thanksgiving here - so HA :P Goof was the one who wanted to do it this early, Hubby decided to let her go at it last night), and her little one for in her room (it's maybe 12"). Feed kids lunch. Internet is still down and modem is still doing very odd blinky sequence. Call hubby at work to ask his opinion. He also finds this strange - tells me to call ISP. I decided that I was too tired, and would rather try to take a nap while Goober is. Snuggle in on the couch with The Goof, and drift off, only to be woken 15 mins later by the phone. It's the ISP - an automated call. Internet is disabled for "security reasons", but won't talk to me as I'm not the "primary" on the account. Call hubby back at work. He decides to call them and deal with it right away (love you!). Turns out that someone must be hacking into our wireless network and has been port-scanning other computers in the ISP's network(hubby is taking care of this, thankfully). Connection is restored. Go check email.
Annoyance #5 strikes. I HAD sold The Goof's first snowsuit. Or so I thought. I've been waiting well over a week now for payment. Waiting for me in my inbox is a message from the "Buyer" stating that their husband found out how much they were "going" to be paying and threw a pissy fit and will be incredibly pissed if they go through with the sale. WON-DER-FRACKING-FUL! Seriously. I am pissed - I've had to pay over $12 out of my own pocket for this stupid listing so far, and it's looking like I'm up the river without a paddle. I mean, really, I'm LOSING money from this now. I'm NOT frigging impressed. Headache sets in. I'm exhausted. I want to go to bed please.
I sincerely apologize for this rant filled post - but I really needed to get this stuff out. Thanks to anyone who actually reads it all...
Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day....
Procrastination Station
Ok. I'm a bad monkey. The sock - it's exactly 4 rounds further along than what is shown in the last post. I am feeling very compelled to work on it today though - I really need another FO under my belt. FO's are very soothing things - even if it's just ONE sock....
If I didn't procrastinate on this one sock, I'd likely be half way done the second one by now! I really need to nip this procrastination thing in the bud and get this pair of socks done, because I can't re-start hubby's socks until these ones are done (need the needles I'm using), and I need to get hubby's socks done by the time he starts Christmas vacation - which is December 14th! Yeah, I know it's just the beginning of November, but I'm also needing to start and finish Tuscany, finish my sister's blanket and sew all the panels together (which reminds me, I need to figure out where I put the pattern notes for it!), start and finish my little Goober's stocking, and knit a baby sweater/hat bootie set (this particular one should take about a week - possibly less for all 3 items). Oh, and I want to knit myself a pair of socks - I'll only do that if I manage to get most of the other stuff done by the end of the month though!
Ok, so, November goals:
1) Finish Dad's socks
2)Re-Start and finish Hubby's socks
3)Start Tuscany - hopefully get it at least 50% done
4) Make SOME progress on my sister's blanket! (ideally, finish it!)
5)Make at least one item from the baby set
6)Choose and buy yarn for Goober's stocking
That doesn't seem too bad! I think that if I can manage to get all of that list done, THEN I will cast on for a pair of socks for myself as a reward!
Off to knit!
Crisis averted!
I've mostly been trying to concentrate on finishing the first sock of the pair that I'm making my dad. If I stick to it and don't get distracted, I can manage to get a surprising amount done! When I picked up the sock on Friday, I only had 1/4th of the leg done - by the time I went to bed, I was half done the heel! I was quite impressed with that amount of progress!
Yesterday, my ADD-like attention span kicked in, and as you can see, not as much got done. However, after a comment hubby made, I nearly scrapped the whole project!
Now, I'll start off by saying, that while he DID grow up with a mom who knits, she was not a sock knitter. Also, this is technically my first pair of regular socks (if you don't count the one spa sock I finished), so he's not one who is familiar with hand-knit socks.
Anyways, I had been taking a break from knitting, and was playing Guitar Hero, when I notice Hubby keeps on looking at the sock. And by looking at it, I mean he was looking at it funny. So, I asked him what was wrong. His response? "It looks really weird".
WHAT!?!?!?!?!?!?! So, I asked him to clarify - and he said that the heel looked weird. Hmmm...Ok...
Now, I'll admit, I'm not overly happy how the coloured heel looks (I don't think there's enough blank there, but, oh well, I'm not ripping back a perfectly good heel!), but I didn't think it looked THAT strange. Then he clarified again. It was the angle the heel is at - it looks too sharp. Ummm...Ok?
So, I got him to try it on (which I had been intending on doing anyways - he's a size down from my dad, and the socks I am secretly making for Hubby are the same pattern), and, well, he LOVES them! Yay! Success on both parts. Now I know that if I make the same size for hubby (with a shorter foot), not only will they fit, he will love them! Yay!
Crisis averted!
Now, hopefully I will be motivated enough to finish that one sock today!
Quick update...
My dad's socks are progressing wonderfully - I'm just turning the heel on the first one now - should hopefully get it nearly finished tomorrow - yay! Then I'll progress on to the second sock.
Oh - I'm frogging my hubby's socks - they look craptastic next to my dad's - and we can't have hubby having craptastic socks!