Fly Away Geese!


Flock of Geese Socks
Knitting Pattern A Day Calendar 2005
Dalegarn Stork yarn Color 19
Magic Loop'ed them on the old Addi Turbos!



Soooo glad these are done. I am really happy with how they turned out but, I was sick of them! Pattern was easy, but I kept screwing it up! They will be in the mail to Kathy very soon.

Next up...
Well, I'm still working away on the argyles. Or should I say (singular) argyle. I went back and stitched over the mistake I made in the pattern. It actually worked really well. Can't see the mistake anymore.

I want to start some toe-up socks in the green stripey yarn I got from Knitpicks. I have instructions for two toe-up socks on one magic loop, but I need to find time to sit down and decipher the cast on. It looks like something I'm going to need to practice.

I still have a very lonely Jaywalker on the needles that is buried at the bottom of my knitting bag. I may have to yank that out and work on it again. Maybe even make it a sole mate. (get it? sole mate? like sole of a foot? hahaha. I know.. It's terrible.)

I have come to the very sad conclusion that there is no way in hell I'm going to be able to knit during the current show. I am WAY too busy. This show is a BITCH. I ran the slides for the first time on Sunday. It was awful. There was much cursing involved. It is going to take me awhile to get the hang of running the slides and the light cues at the same time. The sad part is - I don't have time to get the hang of it. I have to start training someone tomorrow night. It will be the blind leading the blind. I have no idea what I'm doing and yet I have to train someone else to do it. She has to be ready to run the show solo by Saturday so that I can have a day off(a whole entire day!) before I have to go to Baltimore to open another show. Then, a week later when I get back from Baltimore, I have to train ANOTHER person to run lights and slides. Which will be even more fun since I will have been away from it for a week. STRESS!!!!

It's OPEN

I am pleased to announce that my show is finally open! No more tech week hell! I might get some sleep!!

We opened last night. Overall it went well. No major train wrecks on stage. I didn't plunge the actors into darkness. No one got hurt. All good! Tonight did not go quite as well. It's SSS - Second Show Syndrome (not Second Sock Syndrome, from which I also seem to suffer) My second show of a run is always a little scary. It's like I'm off the adrenaline rush of opening night, so I relax a little and make mistakes. Again, no major problems, but I made a bunch of mistakes. There are 392 lighting cues in this show. AND, there is this whole Powerpoint slide show going on, and lucky me - I have to run the slide cues. 150+ slide cues AND 392 lighting cues. I haven't run the slide cues yet. I have to do that tomorrow. And I am terrified. I think my brain will explode. Or I'll just have to grow another hand. (Hmmm.. an extra hand...I wonder if that would be good for knitting?)

The cast for this show seems pretty nice. I haven't met them all yet, but so far they've been pleasant. We'll see how much I like them after doing 5 months of this show with them! And they are all BABIES. So young. I offended one of the dancers today because I called him a fetus. He was telling someone he just graduated in January. I thought he was talking about college. He was talking about HIGH SCHOOL. UGH, I'm old.

In knitting land...
I am ALMOST done with the goose sock. I have another block of pattern to do and then I can decrease for the toe. If I don't finish it tomorrow, I should be able to get it off the needles on Monday.


And here's my experiment with Eunny's argyle chart.

It's taking some patience to get through this. I keep making stupid mistakes:

I've done a fair amount of ripping on this so far, so I've decided to let this mistake be and keep going. Isn't there some sort of over-stitching I can do to cover my mistake? If not, I'll just try to ignore it! I'll try to make sure it ends up on the back of the sock where I can't see it.

I'm enjoying working on this despite my mistakes. It's really fun to watch the pattern emerge. I'm having issues with the double stranding. I think I've come up with a way to hold my yarn, but it's still uncomfortable. I LOVE the shorty needles I'm working on. They are so easy to use and I like that the yarn is a little bit sticky on them.

And I am also a fan of the yarn. (Knitpicks Palette) I haven't decided how I feel about my color combination yet. (Opinions welcome.) I think maybe I should have used brown as the main color. It is quite possible that I will have enough yarn to make a complimentary pair.

Speaking of yarn...
I was reading Lolly's blog tonight where she is displaying this beautiful red/orange fiery yarn that she got from Hill Country Yarn. Of course I had to go check it out and I ended up buying a skein of Instant Gratification in the Indian Stone color. Do I need more yarn? NO.

Gratuitous Poodle Picture



She looks like a ratty wind-up toy, but she's awful cute!

KnitPicks came today! YAY! I've already cast on some pink fun. I'll have to post pictures at another time 'cause I'm just too damn tired to do it now. (Another LOOOONG day at the theatre.) I'm attempting Eunny's argyle chart in brown and pink. I haven't done a whole lot of stranded knitting, but I'm going to try and see what happens.

Right now I'm suffering through some obligatory ribbing. Have I mentioned...I HATE RIBBING. I hate hate hate it. Here's my problem... I purl with my thumb. I carry the yarn over the thumb on my left hand and just kind of flick my thumb and catch the yarn with the right needle. When I have to do many purl stitches in a row, I can do this quite fast. However, when having to switch back and forth between knitting and purling, it becomes tedious to switch between carrying the yarn on my index finger and carrying the yarn on my thumb.

So, I'm trying to force myself to try to purl with my index finger on my left hand. It's not going well. I keep going back to my thumb without even realizing it. I know that what I should do is purl a swatch and force myself to do the entire thing without using my thumb. Just to get the hang of it. I don't think I'll ever give up purling with my thumb completely - it's just much easier for me. But I think if I can learn the "correct" way to purl, my ribbing will go faster and perhaps I won't hate it quite as much!

zzzzzzzzz

I am so freakin' tired. I have been chained to this all day.
It's my light board at the theatre. Hours and hours and hours of pressing those buttons. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Tech week is NOT going well and I will be very glad when this stupid show is up and running.

I was also extremely sad because of the serious absence of yarn related mail in my mailbox today. I am waiting impatiently for my order from Knitpicks to show up. And I haven't received the new IK yet. I sat through work thinking I would go home and find nice treats in the mail, but I was sadly disappointed.

Knitting Group
I had a great time hanging with the new Columbia knitting group (Sucky Knitting Girls, Amie has dubbed it!) last night. And I stand up and proudly say "My knitting style sucks!" I suspect we will have many rowdy knitting nights ahead of us. Laura, Eunny, Amie, Lauren, and Sarah proved to be a great crowd. Lots of laughs and many rows of incorrect knitting (on my part!) And Amie had the magical ball of yarn that never ends! I'm so glad I was able to escape work and join them. I believe we are going to try to make this a regular occurrence on the third Monday of each month. So, if you are in the Columbia, MD area, stop by the Panera on Dobbin and stitch a bit with us. (of course, your knitting style will definitely have to suck!)

I took a momentary break from the Geese socks that I cannot seem to finish, to play with my newly acquired yarn that I got while shopping at Cloverhill with Amie.

I am in love with this yarn. (127 Print. Color 35) It's soft, the colors are rich and beautiful... (My camera does not do it justice.) I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with it yet. I cast on for a sock with no specific pattern in mind. I'm not sure if I'll keep going with the sock or frog it and do something else. I may just pet it and admire it endlessly!

Warning... Too much information!

I have my period. I can say that, right? It's my blog, so I can say that. I apologize if I offend anyone by bringing up my feminine issues, but my guess is that anyone reading this is probably female and can totally relate. If you are a male and you are reading this, please step forward and identify yourself. Say hi, join the fun! Especially identify yourself if you are over 35, single, straight and not hung up on your mother. I digress...

I have my period. I am the first to admit that I am a stark raving lunatic when I have my period. If all was right with the world, I would be locked away from all human contact one week of every month. Just to be safe. Now, even on a good day, my tolerance of stupid people is extremely low. Generally, I would like to kick most stupid people. Add being hormonal into the picture and things get seriously ugly.

So, I'm at work tonight. (I had to go into work at 11:30 at night. It's currently 2:30 a.m. and I just got home. So not only am I completely hormonal, I am also extremely tired.) I have one simple project to do, and then I can go home. Suddenly, I am surrounded by a giant swarm of stupid people. It was insane. People asking stupid questions, people doing stupid things. And the icing on the cake was the teenage boy who tried to tell me how to do something work related that I have been doing, quite literally, longer than he's been alive. Needless to say, this teenage boy no longer has his head attached to his body because I ripped it off.

After scaring several people (picture Godzilla, trompling small villages), I finally put my ipod on as loud as I could bear it and drowned them all out. I think they were all quite happy when I left. The funny thing is there are three women working at the theatre this week who all currently have their periods. It's going to be a fun week!

Changing subject...

The goose is still on the needles. For some reason, I am having issues with this stupid sock. I have had to rip it out three or four times now. I did show them to Kathy and promised to mail them to her. She loves them and can't believe I made them myself. Just the exact response you want when you give something that you made yourself!

Kathy and I had a great weekend together. Had Mexican food, drank margaritas, did a little sight seeing. Great fun. We went to the American Visonary Museum this afternoon. It is the coolest museum EVER. I highly recommend it. Really funky and different.

Ok, it's almost 3 a.m. I really should go to bed. Sorry for the rambling weird post! By the way, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be able to come to Eunny's knitting group monday night. I promise - I won't bite off any heads while I'm there!

aaack!

Thanks to my niece... this is eating my brain.....

Where is my maid when I need her?

My room is a MESS, I have a ton of laundry on my bed that needs to be folded and put away, there is yarn on pretty much every possible surface, my dog shredded a kleenex all over the floor, I can't even discuss the bathroom.... and Kathy is going to be here in less than 24 hours. HELP!

Oh... and the second goose is not finished. I got half way through the heel when I realized that I had missed about 20 rows of pattern prior to the heel. Yeah, I was soooo not paying attention. Rip, rip, rip and now I've got to try to finish the sock and do all the cleaning before she gets here. The Queen of Procrastination strikes again.

I think I'm going to have to miss my knitting group tomorrow. I really would love to go, but they are meeting so far away! I'd hate to lose precious knitting and cleaning time by driving all the way there.

I'm still really hoping that I'm going to be able to make Eunny's knitting group on Monday, but since my lighting designer has not returned my phone call, I still don't know for sure.

Ok, I should probably go fold some underwear or something.

One down, one to go..

Finished a goose today! I'm really pleased with how this has turned out. If I look too closely, I can find all of my mistakes, but hopefully no one else will notice!


I even successfully managed the whole kitcheners stitch thingy! I had to recite the entire process outloud while I did it, but it actually came out well. It wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be.

So, the question is... will I be able to finish the second sock by 8:00 p.m. Saturday when Kathy is due to arrive? I think I can do it. I have a lot of time to knit on Thursday. Friday, I have knitting fun planned with two new knitting friends (more on that in a second...) And Saturday during the day, I have knitting group. I think I can! I think I can! I think I can!

New knitting friends...
On Monday night, I had the extreme honor to meet the ever talented and creative Eunny and Amie. I had such a nice time. Truly lovely women. Eunny and I met at Panera and got to chat and knit for awhile. Amie was able to join us a bit later. It was very cool to put faces to these bloggers! I got to see the famous Deep V argyle vest live and in person. And Amie's self-dyed yarn turning into a very cute baby sweater. Oh... I'm supposed to spread rumors about Eunny. Amie already mentioned the baby eating and kitten kicking so I'll just say that there was talk of devil worship. (It would explain Eunny's speed in knitting!) It may be just a rumor, but ya never know! ;)

In my copious spare time today, (Two shows today. I despise matinees!) I got a little crazy on Knit Picks. I ordered a bunch of sock yarn, including some Color Your Own, Palette and Parade. Soooo bad of me. But, but, but... I really wanna try Koolaid yarn dying! And I really wanna give Eunny's argyle socks a try! (I have brown and pink in mind) And, and... I really don't need any green stripey sock yarn, but I love green! What can I say? It's just a sickness, isn't it?

SNOW!!!!

Wow, when I said "Let it snow!" I didn't really anticipate 21 inches of the stuff! 21 inches!!! It's just crazy!

Here's the view out my bedroom window this morning..


(taken through the screen, hence the weird grainy-ness.)

And here's what happens when you take a poodle out in the snow...


She was such a mess. She actually really loves the snow, but she was not happy about it being higher than her head. I had to take her out in the middle of the street and let her walk in the tire tracks. It was the only way she could walk at all! Last night when I took her out, there wasn't nearly as much snow on the ground, and she was having a blast. You'd never guess she was 14 years old by the way she was bouncing in the snow!

So, remember when I said I thought I was getting sick? Yeah, I got totally plowed over. Yucky, congested, sick. I've spent the whole weekend in bed. I am feeling better today, so hopefully it will be GONE tomorrow. That was one good thing about the snow - I didn't have to go to work today. I didn't accomplish much of anything other than a lot of sleep yesterday, but today I did some knitting.




I still feel like I am doing something wrong. I played around with the stitches a bit, and I still am not sure I'm doing it right. But it's coming out ok, so I'm just going to keep going. If I can manage to finish two socks by next weekend, I am going to give these as a gift to my friend Kathy who is coming for a visit. My kid show for tomorrow morning is already canceled, so MORE KNITTING TIME!

Everybody sing!
Let it snow let it snow let it snow!!!! Yes, I am a HUGE fan of snow. I thought this winter was a complete wash. It was freaking 60 degrees in January. I was sure I wouldn't see another flake fall from the sky. And yet, there's hope. We are supposed to get SLAMMED tomorrow. I'm hearing 9" to a foot. Yay!

And I'm all ready... I have food, I have yarn, and my friend Cheryl brought me a bottle of Chardonnay. I'm going to drink wine and knit and watch the white stuff fall!

Unfortunately, I'm fairly sure I'm getting sick. Scratchy throat, feeling snorfy (that's a medical term - snorfy) and I just know it's coming. So this may put a damper on my wine consumption plans. Though wine and cold medicine could be an interesting combination!

I was going to post a picture of my progress on the tangerine geese sock, but frankly I'm too tired to do all the uploading and pasting and such, so it shall have to wait till tomorrow. I feel like I'm doing something wrong, even though it looks ok. I like the way it looks, but want it to be right. So, I'm going to do a little swatching (yeah, I know... I should have done that first!) and see if I can figure out if I'm doing this correctly. I may defer to you all to see what you think.

Oh, for those of you in the area.... Look for the Smart Shopper magazine in your mail box. (Mine came yesterday) There are coupons for All About Yarn in there. Gotta love a discount!

Slug Day
Insomnia sucks. I haven't slept much in two days and I'm starting to feel a little stupid. I can blame Tuesday nights sleeplessness on the two giant cups of coffee I drank at knitting group. My bad. I admit it. Caffiene and I after 6 p.m just don't mix. But that was Tuesday. You would think I would be exhausted and sleep soundly Wednesday night, but nooooo. I was still staring at my clock at 4 a.m.
So, needless to say, I'm a bit tired today! Therefore, I have decided to have a slug day. Do nothing, go nowhere, and be a slug. Unfortunately, I did have to go to work this morning, so it really isn't a true slug day. But I intend to wallow in slugness for the rest of the day. I have yarn, I have pj's, I have rental movies. Who could ask for anything more!

On my way home from work today, I stopped at the drug store, um... I mean yarn store and bought this:


The pattern is from a Knitting Pattern A Day calendar that I got as a secret santa gift last year. I wasn't even knitting then! I went through it the other day and pulled out all the sock patterns. This one looks pretty interesting. I played with it a bit yesterday and I think I can handle it. I should be working on my white socks. I should not be buying new yarn, I should be thinking about those leaf socks from IK that I want to try. But, I just couldn't resist the tangerine-y goodness of this yarn.

By the way, thanks for the nice comments about the green socks. I like the wool wash idea Leah. I was thinking about doing that since my bind off on both socks is a bit snug. I was hoping that a little soaking might loosen them up a bit.

Do any of you watch Project Runway? It is my new little addiction. I love it! That's actually what I ended up doing last night when I couldn't sleep - watching last night's episode that I had taped. I can't believe they let Nick go. I thought he was adorable and I like his stuff. (though yeah, last night's suit wasn't good) But c'mon - Santino??? That brown sack he put Kara in was awful. I wish she had opened her mouth and said something about how uncomfortable she was. If she had told the judges how bad it was, Nick might have had a chance. I'm convinced they only keep Santino on just because he's so annoying.

Ok, I'm off to take my dog out, get into my pj's, pop a DVD in and begin the slugfest!

C'est Fini!



I have a pair of socks! I love them. Mainly because they are my first pair of socks. But I also really like the color. They are a little too thick to wear with shoes, but they will make great "kickin' around the house" socks. I've been thinking of making another pair in a softer yarn. I have some Simply Soft in my stash that I could play around with.

I just got home from knitting group. (Hi Samira!) I worked on the white jaywalker for awhile. I had some pattern issues though... I had a printed copy that I had been carrying around in my knitting bag with me. Before I left for knitting group, I realized the copy was no longer in my bag, so I printed a new one. When I got to group and looked at it, I realized that it didn't print right, so I couldn't read the last few words of every sentence. GRRRR... So, I eventually had to stop knitting because I didn't know what step came next. After I got back in my car to come home, I found the original printout in my purse. I had it with me the entire time. GRRRRR

And now for a little random ramblings..
I like to watch crafty kind of shows on TV. I enjoy Knitty Gritty on DIY and Crafters Coast to Coast on HGTV. I have actually learned a lot from watching Knitty Gritty. Every now and then, they'll show a stitch or a technique that I don't know how to do. As for Crafters, I like seeing the different things people make. However, I would like to know why they insist on making these people look like complete idiots on national TV. Today, there was a woman doing some sort of scrapbooking kind of craft. In every shot, she was wearing a different STUPID hat. She looked like a complete moron. I don't want to learn scrapbooking from a woman wearing cow horns. I mean REALLY, come on now people! Granted, she might actually be a complete moron. But I can't help but think that the producers put her up to it..."Hey, I've got an idea! It would be funny if you wore a really stupid hat on national TV!" And not only was this poor woman wearing a stupid hat, but at one point they cut to her husband who was outside barbequing with a chicken on his head. "Tell you what sir, we'll put you on TV too, but only if you put a stupid chicken hat on your head!"

To knit or to blog... that is the question...

I am sitting here working on the white Jaywalker. I need about 2 or 3 more inches of foot to finish. Have I mentioned... I'm a little terrified of the whole kitcheners stitch idea? I think I may have to flee to the old LYS to ask for help. Hopefully they won't mind that I didn't buy the yarn from them!

Look what came in the mail today!!!

I gave myself a little Christmas present and got a subscription. I am very excited by the Embossed Leaves Socks pattern. (I tried to take a picture of the magazine page, but it didn't work so well!) I sooo want to attempt these. I will not even think about it until I finish the Jaywalkers and the cabled socks I have on the needles right now, but I can still fantasize about it, can't I?

So, I wanted to share a dirty little secret I have. It's about my needle case. It's a big honking mess.

Exhibit A:

Granted, the best part about my needle case is that I can zip it up so no one can see that it is a big honking mess.



I actually love this case. It holds a lot and I think it looks pretty cool. HOWEVER, I need to do something about the circular needles. They are getting a little out of control.

I read somewhere on Craftster a suggestion to use a zippered CD case to store circulars. I think this is a great idea. I know I have one somewhere in the mess that is my home. I just have to locate it.

Speaking of Craftster... here is a link to the cabled socks thread. The person who posted the pattern did go back and correct the mistakes, so it should be good to go. I only have two more cable repeats to do before I am DONE and I will have finished an actual PAIR of socks! I have to go sit through a rehearsal for our next show tonight and it is my plan to knit through the entire thing.

Saw a great show today.

Saturday is my day off. It is the one day a week where I do not have to set foot in the theatre. So, what do I do on my day off? I go to the theatre. I know... it's just sick! But, it was definitely worth it. My friend Cheryl and I went to see Midwives at Round House Theatre. It is a stage version of the novel Midwives by Chris Bohjalian. Gotta say - two thumbs up. It was really good. I thought the adaptation from novel to stage was quite good. The story is really intense. Good book, good play. Round House has this great program called "pay what you can." On certain dates, they offer tickets for whatever you can afford to pay. Fits quite well into my tight budget!

Of course, while I was waiting in line for tickets, I whipped out the infamous white sock. Yes, I'm still plugging along on it. I worked on it at intermission too - which of course drew comments and questions from the people sitting around me. One woman wanted to get into a huge discussion about what the sock yarn was made of. Not "what are you making?" Not "Oh look, you're knitting!" but "what is that yarn made out of?" It was kind of strange. She made no indication that she was a knitter too, so her question seemed a little odd.

I've been trying to decide what to bring to my knitting group, which is meeting on Tuesday. I really should go back to my sweater, but I had that with me the last time I went to knitting group. I'm a little embarassed at how much I've been neglecting it! I really want to finish some socks before I go back to the sweater. I think it is quite feasible that I will finish the second green sock before Tuesday. I don't want to take the white sock with me. (I think I'm starting to resent that stupid white sock! It's taking too long!)

What I've been thinking about is bringing the brown Regia yarn with me and seeing if I can get one of the knitters to teach me how to do two socks at the same time. Hmmmm.... of course, I'd need to find a new sock pattern..... hmmmm.... decisions decisions!

Oh my gosh, she finished a SOCK!


I love my green cabley sock. It's so nice and warm and it really came out well - despite the errata in the early pattern. I have cast on the second one already and have about 3/4 of the toe done. I did a few rows of the white Jaywalker this morning during my kid show. I may actually finish a pair of socks one of these days!

I am having this strange problem when I am composing my posts. When I hit "enter" to start a new paragraph, I can't type anymore. Sometimes, I hit enter and it takes away any pictures I have posted. It's really frustrating. Sometimes, hitting the tab key a few times fixes it, but more often than not - it doesn't. If anyone knows why this is happening, I would love some insight!

Anyways...
I donated platelets today. I am a devoted blood donor and try to donate as often as possible. Unfortunately, I am usually anemic and I get deferred a lot! But I made a concerted effort to take iron supplements for the past week, and so my iron levels were great today. Today was only the second time I've donated platelets. It's a strange experience. It can take up to two hours or more to donate, so they give you a little portable DVD player to watch and you can select a movie to watch. (They actually have a decent selection of movies.) They bundle you up in blankets because you get really cold while donating. Then they hook you up to this machine that takes your blood, removes the platelets, and then puts the red cells back in your body. The strangest part of the whole process is that it can cause your calcium levels to plummet. For some bizarre reason, low calcium makes your lips feel really odd. My lips start to vibrate. It is the weirdest sensation. They give me Tums to suck on when that happens. The calcium in the Tums helps.

I watched "Must Love Dogs" while I bled. Cute chick flick kinda movie. Gotta love that John Cusack. Hottie Hot Hot Hot.

So, I'm sitting there, bleeding, lips vibrating, watching John Cusack and all I could think was "I wish I could work on my socks while I'm doing this." Unfortunately, you can't move your arms. It takes a lot of effort to not feel a little "straight jacked" about it! Sitting, watching a movie... and I CAN'T KNIT!

So, I'm going to post this, get a beverage, and knit some sock!

What's cuter than a poodle hiding in the closet with the dirty laundry with a dress on her head?