Knitting Friday Progress

So this week I picked up a project I haven't worked on in over a month. My Aunt's Wanida Socks. It's always the same place I stop; halfway through the heel flap. It is the most boring part of knitting socks. But I have turned the heel and am working towards the foot.



My motivation? Once I finish my outstanding projects, which include these socks, another pair for my best friend which is currently stuck at the heel flap and my Anisette Cardi, I am allowed to knit MYSELF another pair of socks out of my "higher grade" sock yarn. I got some Springtree Road Muscadine and Julep, and Tanis Blue calling my name :D

My Sock Blankie has made a little progress as well. I don't expect to work as much on it in the up coming weeks. I have put out request with some of the ladies from my knitting circle who knit many socks, for left over sock yarn. I really want to make my Blankie as colourful as possible while still being washable. Superwash wool all the way!



BTW, I am excited for this weekend. Every summer in Toronto there is The Taste of the Danforth. It's a street festival of Greek culture. I'm not Greek but I do have a fondness of Mediterranean foods (shawarma...drool). Also, I have realized that The Purple Purl is about a 30 minute walk from there. So my plan for the weekend is to stop at The Purple Purl, pick up some Tanis Fibre Art Sock Yarn and I'm going to try to get a skein of Indigo Dragonfly. I'll decide on the colour when I see what's available. I can't wait :D

After that purchase, I am not allowing myself to buy any additional yarn in either full skein or mini skein format until the end of November. I would very much like to sign up for Cookie A's sock club for 2013. And there's also Cyber Monday with KnitPicks which will either be sweater quantities of yarn for sweaters sitting in my queue, and the glossy sock yarn that I bought earlier this year that I am dying to use.

I really need to go to my bed now. It's past 2:30 in the morning and I need to be up at 7am. Good night!

Starting something new

Back in April, while still sitting at a computer at my work office that wouldn't let us do work, I signed up at Gritty Knits (http://www.grittyknits.com/) for Nom-Noms. Nom-Noms are mini skeins of their Nom yarn (which I still have to try). I just thought they were the cutest things (and now I get 6 nom-noms every month) but I really had no idea what I was going to do with them. Before I even made up my mind, I joined a Sampler on Ravelry for Handpainted and Tonal sock yarn from KnitPicks.

So while perusing the Ravelry forum,, I found a group called Blankie Mania and they introduced to the pattern called the Sock Yarn Blanket by Shelly Kang (http://www.shellykang.com/). Once I figured out how to do the metered edges, I went sailing!

It's only been 2 days and I have 5 squares. And for the fun of it, I'll also show my jar of mini skeins.

Good Time

Ever have one of those days where just about everything feels good? I went through that today (well yesterday since it is after midnight).

I looked in the mirror, and I felt good with what I saw, despite the fact I was still in my pajamas at 12 in the afternoon. I worked quite a bit on my sweater I'm knitting (more like a cardigan) and I am so pleased with my progress.

Lookie here! (If everything lines up the way I hope it will when I typed this on my phone...if not, then is the purpilish thing on the black and white carpet)

On Monday, I went out with my mon and one of my aunts, shopping in the Bronx. Even though I had no money and I was really wanting a whopper jr from the Burger King down the street, I had a good time, at least by the time we left Dr. Jays (I'm not much for sports apparel). We ended up at this store around the corner that sells those housewares stuff like kitchen curtains that have ducks and flowers all over them. So not my taste at all but my mom and my aunt seem to love them. I did find this beautiful comforter set that would match with my room perfectly. Unfortunately it didn't match with the money in my wallet which was just enough to get me home. I'm just going to hope it's still there when I come back in November.

I actually came down to New York for one of my cousin's wedding. Because of this wedding, I had a veal and cheese dumpling that was delicious and I wish I could have taken some home. I also realized New Rochelle, he city (or county, or borough, or whatever the heck it's called) is one of my ideal places in the US to live if they had the health care coverage like they do in Canada and I had a job that could support the housing....and my drivers license since none of my New York family is within busing distance.

I had a great time while I was out here (yeah, I haven't actually left yet but that's happening tomorrow). I'm sad that I'm missing the family 4th of July BBQ next week but what can I do? I still need to find work back in my home country in time to accumulate vacation time and get to use it for New York in November

G'nite to my non-existent readers :) off to sleep so I can enjoy my last day here.

PS: maybe tomorrow I'll put up a couple of shots of the scenery from my trip

I'm not really sure how I feel today

I'm currently unemployed (company decided to obliterate my department) and I still haven't found a new job. Kinda hard to when you don't even want to think about the concept of rejection.

So I've been spending my time knitting my mother's long awaited Multnomah Shawl which is looking decidedly short, knitting a pair of Wanida Socks for my aunt, watching DVDs with my DVD player that I've had for ages but have only recently started using (more 'Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman'). Been doing a lot of reading and wanting to write, only to have my NetBook spontaneously decide to leave me a blank document instead.
I'm contemplating things like my living arrangements. While I do love my mother and I like living with my family, I want to be more independent and get my own place, which for me would mean moving an hour away to my 'ideal' city. I can't really do that until my brother is more stable with his income (and I get another job of course, hopefully in the city I want to live in).
As if that's not enough, I do want to go back to school and finish something, whether it be diploma or degree, don't know, don't care. But I want to do this on my own which will require a lot of planning. I'm good at planning, not so good with the follow through so we'll see how well this goes once the planning phase is done.
I'm one of those people who generally prefers to be alone and I come from a family who are majority social butterflies, constantly wanting to talk and go out places and talk to lots of people. Im quite fine to stay in my room and hang out with myself.

Ever since I found out you can dye yarn with kool-aid, I have been wanting to try it.  And I will...one day...maybe over the summer or by next year.  But knowing how I am, of course I have to go looking to see tutorials.

http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEspring07/FEATdyeyourown.html - with acid based dyes
http://naturalsuburbia.blogspot.com/2010/01/how-to-dye-yarn-with-sun-dye.html - with food colouring