Where do we go...

Sweet Child, Where do we go now...

Thanks to all of you for your well wishes and prayers. You all are the best.

We have some embryos a-growin', so we'll see what happens. They will take over the world. This I know for sure. Bwah-ha-ha-ha!

Have you finished ANYTHING?

Yes.

The Sockapaloooza socks are done.

Click here for a detail shot. Oh, yeah.

And, here's the specs, if'n you want 'em.

Gratuitous Pet Shot:

Ouch.

Now that I have passed the egg retrieval stage, I am taking intramuscular shots of progesterone nightly. Thank God I work with nurses. Take a look at the size of this needle:

Ow. Quit it. Ow. Quit it.

Actually, and truly, they aren't that bad. Didn't really hurt much. Or maybe I'm just numb from all the other shots I gave myself over the last 10 days or so. Hmmm.

Sleeve therapy.

To distract myself from such medical therapies, I finished the Vintage Knits Ribbed Sweater Sleeve No. 1. Or, Bob, for short.

Bob needs to be sewn on to see how it's all going to go together. I have true fear that I am going to run out of yarn. I think I can maybe get the other sleeve done, but there's no way there's enough for the neckband. CRAP. The yarn gods are not smiling. Anybody out there have any Rowan Cotton Glace in color 787, Hyacinth??? We can talk dye lots, people. I can trade or pay. But you can't have our firstborn (if there is one). ;-)

You're out of touch

I'm out of time... but I'm out of my head when you're not around...

Hello there. Some Hall and Oates for you. Sorry we have been away from around here, but things have been so busy in the HE Household.

First and foremost - High Energy John and Jenny are in the midst of a crazy fertility-test-tube-hopefully-not-alien-baby-making situation. Wish us luck for tomorrow, as the crazyness starts to go down in the am. We'll keep you posted.

Unless you're giving birth to knitting we don't care.

In that case, here is one finished Sockapaloooza sock. ROCK ON.

Click here to biggiesize it.

These are Mountain Colors Bearfoot, in color "Obsidian", and the pattern is "Openwork Rib" from Sensational Knitted Socks.

People, I have all but ONE TOE left. If I didn't have to get up early, they'd be done. They will be finished before the deadline. All of you can breathe a sigh of relief. You know you need to. You were worried, just a little bit. Admit it.

Whatever.

And here's the back of Loll:

Looks about the same. Not too exciting, my dears. But I do have that back bound off now, and I have also began the left front. For the SECOND TIME.

Why did I have to start over? Because I forgot the fringe is on size 8's and the rest on size 10s. The fringe looks too open and floppy on the bigger size. Frogging that fringe was no picnic. Loll has been set aside, just briefly, so it can think about what it has done. It can come out when it realizes it's error.

Sad bit here.

Also, as we are approaching Maryland Sheep and Wool, I must tell you that I will not be going. I am really sad about this, as it was so much fun last year, and since then I've met even more people I want to meet in person! And I will miss seeing the new friends I met in 2005.

But, in order to be off work for fertility treatments, I have to work the weekend of the 6th and 7th of May. Bummer. You guys, fondle some fiber for me, okay?

To keep my mind off missing you all, I have recently treated myself to sock yarn:

The plant is a Shamrock that belonged to my late father-in-law, Richard. I of-the-black-thumb am very proud it is doing so well. Richard would be pleased.

The two most lefthand yarns are from Spunky Eclectic, the middle and next to the right are from Dicentra Designs, and the bright yellow goodness is from the fabulous Mama-E. Handpainted, every one. Be still my heart.

But Losin' Everything...

Is like the sun going down onnnn meeee....

I think I love the version best where George Michael sings with Elton. Also, I think Roger Daltry of the Who sings this on the Lost Boys soundtrack - remember that movie? Both Coreys (Haim and Feldman) were in that movie. Good soundtrack though.

Sockapal-issues.

As you know, I am participating in Sockapaloooza, and had the ghastly realization that my socks are due on like MAY 2ND. Not good. I thought I had more time. As you can imagine, the panic has ensued.

And the problem was twofold. I picked out that pretty color of Artyarns, and when I knitted it, it was way too pink. She wanted "deep jewel tones", and I did not think the following qualified.

I'm telling you, there was no damn pink in this yarn before I started to knit it.

And, she didn't want a lacey pattern, which was, as you can see, what was happening.

I sucked on all sock fronts. And heels.

Don't keep us in suspense.

So, I started over. If Mohammed will not come to the mountain... or... anyway, I went to my Mecca, and came home with three colors of Mountain Colors Bearfoot, and have chosen the following:

I'm much happier with it, and I hope my pal likes it. The pattern is from Sensational Knitted Socks, by Charlene Schurch, which is truly one of the best knitting books I have read. It really helps you create a sock on your own, and has techniques you may not have tried. It will free you from sock yarn patterns, if you feel chained to them, or at least make you feel confident in them. Trust me. It's a great book.

Loll

And here's a Loll update, just for fun. I was surprised, truly, by how many of you said you'd never knit with Rowan Calmer again. I'm in love with this yarn.

And lastly.

Found these in a Hancock Fabrics. HOW UNFORTUNATE.

What is happening here??? What you need more than a little ugly novelty yarn, apparently, is a whole SHITload of it. Good Grief. Someone stop them.

Since then it's been a book you read in reverse

so you understand less as the pages turn...*

[SKIP TO THE BOTTOM if you just want knittin']

I rarely do memes, as you know, but I saw this one on Cara's and at Lolly's and it interested me. The directions are to take the list of books below and mark them as such:

"Bold the ones you've read, italicize the ones you might read, cross out the ones you won't, underline the ones on your book shelf, and place parentheses around the ones you've never even heard of"

The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams
The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J. K. Rowling
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - George Orwell
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
1984 - George Orwell
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden - Currently Reading.
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
Wuthering Heights - Emily Brönte
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C. S. Lewis
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides (I hated this book.)
(Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell)
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
(Atonement - Ian McEwan)
The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon - Currently Reading
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Dune - Frank Herbert

I consider myself someone who doesn't read popular fiction, so it's interesting I've read so many of those books. Some of my favorites are on that list. Weird, eh?

Loll

So as mentioned, I am lucky lucky and get to knit a store sweater for Main Street Yarns in Rowan Calmer, the dreamiest of yarns.

I knit my Audrey sweater from Rowan 35 in Calmer, and had a bear of a time getting gauge. In general I struggled with the yarn, but I loved it.

Here's a lesson for you.

The thing is, when I knit that sweater I FINALLY had success in the gauge on US 8's (5mm). This new sweater, Loll, has the SAME gauge, same yarn, so I should be good to go on an 8, right?

Wrong. Just to be safe I swatched, and I need a 10. A 10!! 6mm!! Just a lesson for all of us. Trust no one. Mulder was right.

Start me up

So here's a beginning picture of the fringe and the sweater itself:

Initially I was unsure about this fringe, but now, I think it's gonna be good. Here's an update with the waist shaping:

The pattern is WRONG for sizes 1, 3, 4, and 5. I'm making the 3rd size (medium, I guess) and had to re-figure the stitch count. I will post about this in more detail next time for you, and I have written the people at Rowan so I can show them the error. Kim Hargreaves probably knit the second size, then she or someone else extrapolated, wrongly, I can tell you.

But that's why I'm here, right? ;-)

Hi Ho Hi Ho it's off to work I go.

*The Shins. Love them.