She has proven herself knit worthy

Yuppers, my aunt is definitely on the approved knitting list. Last week I noticed a lone pair of socks hanging in the laundry room. When I examined them, I realized they were the Wanida socks I knit for my aunt last year. She washed them in delicate and hung them out to dry. I feel much better about giving her hand knit socks.

Since today is March 31st, I checked on the Koolaid dye group I. Ravelry to see what the challenge for April was.

April's challenge: dye and knit a project in a month.

While I do enjoy knitting socks, I already have 2 pairs of Cookie socks for the Sock Club to do in the next 2 months. Something tells me I wouldn't finish something in the allotted time. I had to think of something to knit on a much smaller and less complicated than socks. In comes T, who on Thursday showed me a pair of fingerless gloves that she had knit in a DK weight yarn. I loved how they looked and decided that I wanted to make them in a Tanis skein like she did. Guess what? While I do like Tanis, I am not Tanis therefore I need to dye it myself.

I don't actually own any DK weight yarn but after some searching and an email to Acme Fibres, I was able to purchase 2 skeins for my dye and knit project for April. True I won't be able to wear them until much later on this year but who cares?

And now, I will start playing the Quiver Podcast on my phone, sit back and continue to work on my Blankie.

Also, I'm still going to get the skein of DK weight Tanis, perhaps this week.

It finally happened

The family game night I talked about from way back in January has finally happened.  The first one and at my house.  The house is only partially full of family and friends (there's a ton more that couldn't make it so we do have breathing room here).  Got an intense game of Monopoly that has been going on for over 2 hour.  Having never experienced these people really playing a game, I was in for a surprise.  I don't think I could ever have a Family Game Night without these crazy people.

My mom pulled off a little surprise for cousin B1 and had a cake for her birthday, which was almost a week ago.

I showed my dress (yes I still consider it my dress even though I technically don't own it yet) to my brother's girlfriend.  She encouraged me to buy it.  One of my other friends showed me an email from the store saying they're having a 30% off sale on dresses.  I was hoping that the malls would be open tomorrow however a check through Google.ca quickly informed me that the mall is no opened (darn Easter Sunday holiday).  So that was a bust.  I went running to my mama to get her credit card and bought the dress online.  I have ordered many things online from movies to music to a power cord for an old printer but I have never purchased clothing before.  Luckily I did try on the dress in the store.

On a knitting note, I was happy when I saw an email from Cookie informing me that my yarn is on it's way!  I hope it gets here by my birthday (it's next Saturday)

So a dress plus my yarn plus my eBay purchase = stalking the postman until they all come to me.

Useful rambling

I am so forgetful. I made it all the way to Hamilton, sitting down at my church with an Iced Capp and a chocolate chunk cookie from Tim Hortons before I realized I forgot to pack the charger for my phone. My phone has been temperamental about charging since last summer, or so I thought. The USB cord that came with my phone will no longer barge my phone but a knock off from Walmart charges it. The problem is that the charger is literally falling apart and has a tendency to pull out of my phone. Luckily enough, a resident of "my Hamilton house" has this lovely green charger that I thought my phone would not like. Lo and behold it plugged in no problem and started to charge like my phone used to when I first got it. I asked and they said they got it from eBay. Of course this prompted me to start looking and I found it and entered the bid with 5 minutes until ending with no one else bidding and got it for a penny plus shipping. Good deal? Of course!

I'm still working on the Blankie today and I believe I will be working on it until the next sock pattern arrives. The Dark Isle socks can wait until I finish the next pair from the the club.

I've added 5 squares today. One of them is reminiscent of the Dark Isle socks with the same colour stripping (which only encourages me to create self stripping socks yarn in those colours). I loved it so much, I did another in Calends (from Springtree Road) and Thunderhead (from Knitpicks). I think I'm going to throw in more of these kinds of stripping as I go along.I would also like to figure out how to do other kinds of colour changes in a square like if I can find a way to get the raised seam a different colour. I was thinking of adding the colour from the wrong side on either side of the centre stitch so that when I do the double decrease, that will be where it shows. I'm going to try it out and see how it works. So far, it's a good idea in theory.

And as I work on this Blankie, I was thinking that I can also use as a colour sample of yarn that I would like to dye it, but on a much smaller scale than the current Blankie. I'll need to get a few skeins of sock yarn, divvy it up into 5gram skeins and start to do some dyeing and see where I end up with it.

Current absolute favourite square: the ode to my parents homeland - Jamaica.

Self stripping: it shouldn't be too hard o get it done. I think the hard part will be getting the navy blue which I purchased in that colour from Springtree Road...I'm loving Late Dusk.

Crazy ways of building your stash

My yarn stash is shrinking. I've used, or partially used 3 skeins from my stash plus a skein from the sock club in the past 2 months. That was made into 2.5 pairs of socks in less than 2 months and 12 full skeins of sock yarn that I haven't dyed myself.

What has this made me realize? This year is still a "no buy sock yarn" year. I may purchase a skein of DK weight of Tanis and that should be all for the year. Next year, instead of purchasing sock yarn so to speak, I think I'll join an extra yarn for the year. I'm thinking about joining the Tanis Year in Colour for 2014, along with the Cookie A Sock Club 2014. That way, every month is get a skein of yarn. And I'll have more sock yarn to add to the Blankie later.

Of course I don't have the money for this venture but that's what saving money is for. The goal is $500ish for the end of the year. Other than needle purchases (I'm starting to look at Signature DPNs because I'm crazy like that), a book purchase, undyed yarn and 1 Knitpicks purchase of Stroll Yarn in Black, that should be it for knitting purchases.

Onto the Blankie update...

I added a corner and did another triangle. I line the results but I have to find another cast-on method other than the long tail cast on (LTCO) or the backward thumb cast in. It's too hard to pick up stitches with the LTCO but the backward thumb doesn't look too hot. I don't know any other cast on so this means YouTube cast on research required.

This is the Blankie in its entirety so far. I had to pull it out at the library, where Knitting Circle #2 is located, and put it on the table to get it all in the pic so far. I still have 5 or so starter squares to do before it has a chance of being wide enough for my queen size bed.

Blankie Triangles

I didn't get to work on my Blankie as much as I wanted to however, it wasn't a bust at all. I finally attempted to add triangles and I was SUCCESSFUL! I have 2 triangles added and I'm ready to do more.

I also did 4 starter squares in total and I believe I need another 7 to make the Blankie as wide as I want it to be. And with that combined with understanding the triangles, I can really start to work my way up and make a lot more visible progress.

It is colourful and pretty!

I finished sock one of the Dark Isle. The heel went pretty quickly. I'm not sure when I'm going to get started on sock two but I'm not feeling an immense rush to finish then. It could be because I want to have my needles free for the next sock club shipment and I have no idea what size I'll need. This won't be an issue when the Dyak DPNs arrive...just a minimum of three more months to go.

I started making starter squares for the Blankie. I'll put up pics tomorrow.

There's really no excuse...sort of

It seems like close to the end of every month, there's a day I forget to update (or the app refused to upload anything). I came home last night and promptly fell asleep. That's how tired I was.

Today's late update is due to laziness. I knew I had an update I wanted to do. I even have pics to show but I picked up the Dark Isle socks, started watching Dancing with the Stars and then a new episode of Castle then an old episode of Castle while realizing that I could start on the afterthought heel. Progress is being made, slowly but it is coming along.

I got my glasses! My grandfather says it looks like me. My cousin B1 wants my frames...yea-no. The upcoming picture is probably the most I've shown my face on here.

On another note, it was B1's birthday yesterday. She's 17!

Just tired

This evening didn't go as planned.

Last night, my group of friends decided that we should all go to this restaurant called "It's a Food Thing" tonight, after church. I didn't have clothes for Sunday so I sent a text to my aunt to bring some clothes for me since I would see her today at church. She texted me this morning to tell me she forgot. I live an hour away from church so it's not like I can easily jump on a bus to go pick up the clothes.

My previous approach to this was let's stop at the mall so I can pick up what I need. This is no longer an option when there is barely any income coming in (I wasn't even able to get the dress I was drooling over a couple of weeks ago).

My friends had to go without me :( and I didn't get to try the oxtail poutine. I came home and inked my batik painting. It's coming along well.

Didn't knit much...just a couple of rows of ribbing.

Feeling positive

I'm in Hamilton as per usual. I remembered to ask one of my friends about what it's like to live here from the financial view and it's looking very affordable to move here on my own once I save some money and get a job here. I'm really looking forward to the next year.

I still haven't finished the leg of the Dark Isle socks but I am the ribbing. The only thing left to do when that's done is the heel. I may or may not get this pair finished before its time for the next Cookie shipment.

I'm not even going to bother putting up a picture because in comparison, there really isn't much difference. I'm going to knit a few more rows before I go to sleep.

And the sock goes on

I am really almost finished the leg of the Dark Isle Socks. Just a few more rows before I start the ribbing. I can't wait I can put on this sock. The disadvantage of knitting a sock toe up, with DPNs is that I can't fit my foot through the DPNs to try it on. I've had to switch it over to circular needles to make sure it would fit my foot.

If I try these socks again, I'm going to go back to a 1.5US DPNS but increase the foot width to like 68 or 72 sts OR use the 2US DPNs for the entire sock and go back to the 1.5US for the zig zag portions.

I'm currently sitting here impatiently for the next yarn shipment for the sock club, which should be here in just over a week.

Feeling more in control

I am a procrastinator by nature so when I get the rush to do something right now, I try to listen to it.

Take today for example. I continued to work on my Dark Isle Socks when the "move out" want emerged ("move out" want is what sims experience when they transition into an adult). I can't just sit around being all lazy and expect to be able to move out of the house in a year's time. I put down the sock and went looking on my phone to see what schools offer a library technician program. So far, I've only found one with sit down classes but I don't currently meet the requirements. I sent off an email to the head of the department to see what my options are. I also called into an employment agency and set up an appointment for Monday about getting temp work.

My goal is to be able to save enough for first and last months rent, basic furniture and pay for the moving. Before I'd move though, I'd like to have a job in the area.

My mind has been rushing with keeping up with all the things I'd need to save for which is making me rethink my banking options. Hopefully, things will be changing in the near future.

I knit! I cook! I create art!

Today, I didn't finish the leg of the Dark Isle socks but that's okay! I did knit. I also cooked: Creamy Chicken Pasta with Broccoli Rabe (broccoli rabe is just a fancy way of saying rappini which is a vegetable that I immensely dislike)

Creamy Chicken Pasta with Broccoli Rabe turned out delicious and the rappini took on the flavour of the rest of the food. This was also my first time using Philly Cooking Creme. I'm not even a fan of cream cheese but I like this version of it. I wonder if it can be used as a spread for sandwiches...

Last week Wednesday, I did Batik for the first time. It actually was pretty fun. Today was the second class and next week is the last one. I'm in the middle of outlining with ink which I believe is the last step. If there was time, I'd do it again. I showed the project to my aunt and she said I should frame it when I'm done. I actually like that idea.

Am I trying to burn myself out?

You know when you work so quickly on a project, you feel like you're burning out? I'm sort of feeling that right now.

Unintentionally I have been working hard on the Dark Isle socks. I'm now on the leg and working my way up. The only reason the socks came out I the bag tonight was because I needed a picture of my progress for this blog. I'm sure I'll feel differently tomorrow but right now, I want to curl up in bed, watch Nathan Fillion on Castle and go to sleep.

I may have the leg finished by tomorrow night and then I have to do my first afterthought heel. I am nervous about that and I hope it turns out well.

After these socks are done, I don't think I'm going to knit anymore socks until I get my next shipment from Cookie. I think I'll work on the Blankie in the mean time.

Oh the knitting drama

As soon as I finished the Ernie Socks, I pulled out my skein and ball winders, ready to wind my Liquified Sunset (yes, I have finally named my skeins). I wound the the handle on the ball winder a few times and then it fell off my bookshelf. Upon checking the winder, the attachment broke which meant I had to go manual.

That's 1 new ball winder with table attachment required which I don't have extra money to put towards it.

I still continued to wind my skein with a little more difficulty but it wasn't impossible. As I worked, I spent more attention to the ball winder then to the swift. It soon flew off the base.

Yes, the swift flew off the base. The yarn from the other end had gotten caught on the screw and had built itself up enough that it started to unscrew the swift. I didn't even know it could do that.

I did eventually caked the Liquified Sunset and the Late Dusk sock yarn and went to work on the Dark Isle Socks.

For the first time in my life, I did a toe up cast on that had a smooth toe. I've actually made a lot more progress on the socks than I thought I would have done in a span of 24 hrs. T was right; it does seem to go faster just to see how the colours change as you progress.

What is done, is done

I got home to more yarn and I finished the Ernie Socks within a couple hours. I'm gifting them to my Aunt. She was grinning like a banshee when I asked her to try it on.

I'm going to cast on the Dark Isle socks, hopefully tonight after I cake them. I can't wait to get started.

Surprise!

(Well not a surprise for me) My BFF and I blindfolded our dear friend Fi, put her in a car and took her out for dinner for her upcoming birthday.

I have never seen anyone so excited to be blindfolded. She made me take a picture so she could Instagram in once she was allowed to see.

We went to this restaurant called Sushi Star in Hamilton. The food was so good and filling. The rest of our group got the buffet. My BFF and I got the boxed meal: salmon sushi (that we made them cook), beef or chicken, rice, springrolls, and veggie Tempura. We even had food to bring back.

Note to self: Always Check

Imagine my dismay as I'm sitting on the bus from Toronto to Hamilton, working on my Ernie's, when I look inside my sock bag and discover that I don't think I have enough yarn to finish this sock! I have 1.5 repeats before starting the toe but I think that's going to be tight.

I do have the rest of the yarn at home, in my Blankie bag waiting to be turned into a square. I'm most likely going to have to siphon some off and use it for the sock.

This is what happens when you just throw knitting projects into the backpack without checking them first.

I had a visit with an optometrist today. Haven't done that for quite sometime.. I found out that not only do I have keratoconus (yes I had to google it to spell it correctly) which I have known for quite some time, I have astigmatism in my right eye. I have to get glasses and that bothers me less than most people would think. I'm actually looking forward do it :) I got the glasses all picked out!

Better late then never

You know when you get so distracted, you forget to do the things you have planned for the day, that you do everyday? Yeah, that just happened to me. I noticed 5 minutes ago, that I didn't update but considering blogger marks it's time by pacific, no one should notice the difference.

Today, I had planned to show what sock pattern I wanted to do with my gradient yarn but as I type this now, I remembered that I had mentioned this yesterday. So today, I will show a picture of the yarns selected to do it with. There's a good chance that I'll cast on sometime next week.

I'm finally on somewhat of a roll with the Ernie Socks so I suspect it won't take much longer to finish...phewf!

It still doesn't have a name

Even though the Ernie Socks are not done, I have I already started planning my interim socks. It was the whole reason I was looking forward to this gradient dyeing challenge.

A few months ago, I got my Nekkid skein of Muscadine from Springtree Road with the intention to use it for the Tree of Life Socks. I had to reevaluate the idea since I still can't get access to the pattern. I found another colourwork pattern called Dark Isle by Julia Mueller Laris and I knew I couldn't give up on the gradient dye project.

I figured yellow, orange and red would look nice and it reminded me of a sunset.

I dyed the skein in yellow, using 30 drops of yellow food colouring and 1.5 tsp of citric acid. It turned out quite nicely, almost like a skein of Sunshine from Tanis Fibre Arts that I currently have sitting in my stash. I let it dry overnight before moving onto the next step.

I caked to skeins. I tried to get them to 52g a piece and somehow, despite using a scale and weighing 52g, I ended up with 50g and 54g cakes. I dyed both of the cakes at the same time in 20 drops of red food colouring and 1.5 tsp of citric acid.. Problem is that I didn't get the red I had wanted. It didn't occur to me that red on yellow made orange, not red! I was having a slow day. I did like results though and was willing to keep it as is.

I recaked it and had another duh moment. For some strange reason, I thought the cake would be inside out if I was winding it from the middle. That didn't work but it did show off the colour transitions better.

I let it dry off somewhat overnight while I waited to get an answer as to how to add a colour in the centre of the cake. I decided on purple. I caked a small portion of each centre and dyed it is a neon purple and a bit blue food colouring. I had more trouble untangling the mini cake (not cakes because the other one behaved itself).

I recaked the two cakes while they were still damp and I loved how they looked. I just wished I had dyed more of the centre of the cake purple.

Up until this point, I had not heat set anything since the yellow set in the beginning. I skeined the mini cakes. I put the two skeins back in water and nuked it in the microwave for two two minute sets. I let it cool and put it up to dry.

By this morning, they were ready! I so enjoyed the work to get these done and I want to do more gradient dyeing in this method.

I think I need a detangling shampoo

Ernie Socks have reached the heel flap. I should be able to finish that and the turn heel tonight. Then it's much smoother sailing after that.

I'm still working on my dye project and managed to get my third colour in thanks to a suggestion on Ravelry. Somehow, my yarn decided to be ridiculous and get itself all tangled. I spent 45 minutes trying to untangle a small portion of yarn. I usually don't spend that kind of time on untangling yarn but because I'm dealing with colour transition, I'm making the effort. Next time, don't be lazy and pull out the Corningware. Something tells me I wouldn't be having this trouble

Just a little bit longer

I think I've done 3 repeats more on the Ernie Socks and that means just one more before the heel flap. I think once I make it to there, I'll finally feel like I'm making real progress with these socks. I don't think I'm ever going to do these ones again. While they do remind me very much of my BFF Socks, which I love very much, they are just not as interesting to me. So that now cuts out the guarantee of making both pairs for each delivery.

As for the sock yarn I was dying, step 1 was completed by this morning and looked exactly like how I wanted it to. Step 2/3 went well as well. Step 4? Not so much. It's not turning out the way I had planned, or more actually, the colour I was expecting is not what's on the yarn. I'm debating if I should try to do an over dye, or leave it as is. I'm giving it a few more hours for the rest of the dye to soak in, before I make up my mind.

Potential yarn name number 2? One in Two. Yeah, I'm not really feeling that one myself.

Hand in hand

TV and knitting seem to go well for me. I did about 1.5 repeats on the Ernie Socks and I barely noticed. I didn't take any pics though.

I started a gradient dye today. It will take quite some time to do for all the steps I have in mind. When it is finished, I'll dedicate a post to the entire process.

I'll just put up possible names of this colour until it's done: It starts with 30 drops of sunshine

Snooze

I've got 4 more repeats of the Ernie Socks before I reach the heel flap. This has been a LONG process. I think the only reason I'm continuing is because I already finish the first sock and I can't just rip it out now. I'm still debating if I should hand over the finished product to my aunt who's foot is the same size as me. It depends as to if the socks will end up being disliked when finished.

And they were a hit!

I finally made the Pecan Sandies with real pecans. I can't eat them myself and they ended up not looking as appealing but I've been told they taste really good and they're making their way to a good house :)

Definitely enjoyed today

I got a little bit of everything done today. I got some jeans tailored, I went to the gym, I handed out a couple of resumes, I ate turkey wings and I went to the second knitting circle.

The best part of that knitting circle is that I got to see T! T's the one who showed me how to knit socks. I haven't seen her face to face since before she went on maternity leave. Her son is 1 now, so that tells you something. I did a bit more on the Ernie Socks while there. I'm still kinda meh about them but I am determined to finish them.

No pic of the sock progress tonight but I will show a dress I tried on today that I really want to buy!

Quick little update

I did do a lot today but not much towards knitting. Went to the gym, glared at guys who were hogging the machines, set up an appointment with the optometrist, talked to a librarian about an interview...

It was productive but only 6 rows of knitting was done. Oh well! Tomorrow is Knitting Circle #2. Can't wait to see how it is :)

It took until the afternoon

I didn't start the second sock of the Ernie Socks until like 3 this afternoon. It's like I was trying to avoid the second sock. I did 1 and a half repeats of the leg pattern. It may go faster this time around.

One down, one to go

I finally finished one sock of the Ernie socks. The second sock will be cast on tomorrow. I still don't love them like I do the Newton socks but that could also be because I got spoilt with the MCN Sock Yarn from Indigodragonfly. Despite the fact Julep has the same properties as the MCN Sock (Merino 80%/Nylon 10%/Cashmere 10%), the MCN feels so much softer. Maybe the Julep sock will feel differently once it gets washed.

On the dyeing side, for March Challenge is gradient dyeing. I'm going to use the Nekkid Muscadine from Springtree Road. I was going to save it for the Tree of Life sock but as of yet, I still haven't gotten the book and no one has replied to the email so I'm assuming I won't be able to get the book that way.

Anywho, back to the yarn. The plan so far is a multi step process:
1) dye skein in light yellow
2) cake yarn in 50g parts
3) dye outer part of yarn in orange
4) re-cake yarn
5) dye outer part in red
6) re-cake
7) using a syringe, deposit some purple in the middle of the cake.

Hopefully, all of that will create a one of a kind one way gradient. I'll use that along with another Muscadine sock yarn to do another colour work sock.

Status update on the cookies: out of 48 cookies, there are less than 10 remaining. What the heck is up with the people in my house?

I went with it

Got up early this morning, went to the grocery store and bought everything I needed to make the Non-Pecan Pecan Sandies. I doubled the recipe and ended up with 48 cookies. The first tray had the massive cookies. So that's a no when scooping these cookies with an ice cream scooper. I went back to the hand method and came out with 36 decent sized cookies. Now to get them separated for people who asked for some before.

I'm pretty sure I'll get to knitting later on today.

Slow progress

These Ernie socks are taking such a long time. I'm still on the gusset; the same gusset as 2 days ago. I'm trying I give myself some motivation to work faster. The faster I finish these socks, the faster I can do something else like the Rick socks which I had attempted last year January. We'll see how that works.

Tomorrow's going to be a cookie day. Non pecan pecan Sandies again :)

Nothing much

No knitting today. No dreaming of Sims 2 neighbourhoods. I just spent a long time trying to get power for my phone.

I had planned to get a little knitting in tonight, while at my friend's house but she said she was making bean salad and I volunteered to help. Her bean salad is awesome and it means I can get some tomorrow.

I may stay up for a bit but I make absolutely no guarantees.

Wow, no pictures either. :(