My sock has a heel

Sock progress

I finished a lingering project this weekend and did some swatching for my mom's birthday sweater this weekend, so my sock is growing slowly. 

Just over halfway to the starting the heel flap. 

Winterbark Socks

Here's a recent FO. First pair of socks with cashmere in the yarn. Almost makes me wish it was cool enough to wear them, almost. 

More like it

Sludgey, murky, and neutral in all the right ways.

Malabrigo sock yarn in Pocion. I bought three skeins of Malabrigo from Simply Socks a few weeks ago. 

These will go well with most of my wardrobe. This colorway would be great for guy socks, too!

Life is too short to knit ugly socks

These are going to the front pond post haste.

I'm bummed to not have any knitting for my commute home, but I have lots of better looking yarn to spend my time on!

Progress shot

Nearly done the short rows.

Haven't knit as much this week. I've been reading.

Today, I feel like sleeping. And crying. My mom's sister died yesterday. This is when it's hardest living so far away from family. No idea when the arrangements will be made.

I think I like it

Did not like the Regia shown in the earlier post. Swapped in some KPPPM. I think I like it.

Another one?

brush with celebrity

A production company and casting agency share the fourth floor of my office building. One day I bumped into Peter Scolari on the elevator. Today was way cooler.

On my way down this evening, the elevator stopped on the 4th floor and Jeanine Garafalo got on. She said "hi."

Who says hi on a NYC elevator? Jeanine Garafalo, apparently.

I played it cool, but the rest of the way down I wanted to burst. I think she's so cool and funny.

On the way out of the building, I noticed the pocket on her back pack was open and let her know.

She said thanks.

I very rarely recognize celebrities. I'm glad I recognized her!

Too much zebra?

Can you have too much zebra print?

My husband says I look like I should be in a Bon Jovi video from the 80s!

Affection update

I'm almost to the last repeat of the three-stripe section. Man these rows are long!

Sunday Sewing

I've wanted to make this bag for over a year. I ordered the laminated cotton last January!

I saw woman on the train platform with a zebra tote and decided I wanted one. But mine needed to have red straps. I went with the laminated cotton for some weather Protection.

I went back and forth on the lining, but finally cut into my Michael Miller word search yardage. I'm very happy with it, except it's kind of floppy. Next time I'll interface or add an inner layer of some flannel.

Started short rows

Exciting. A new color of stripes.

Shouldn't have tied to start short rows at basketball. Just kept going and had to rip out nearly a whole row!

iPad makes it easy to blog more?

We'll see if the ease of connecting pictures to the Internet my iPad gives will help me re-start this moribund blog.

Latest project (for which I actually posted a pic to Ravelry).

My soccer mom Color Affection. Son's school colors; otherwise, I avoid yellow!

the blog languishes

I've not been blogging. It's hard to get back into the habit.

I did, however, finish Billy's sweater. 1 down, 11 to go!

Sweater #2 is in progress. I'm knitting an Iced from Knitty Fall 2010, which I have knit before. I'm using Polar in brown for the bulk of the sweater with some Manos for the collar. Pics to come!

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I really need to knit for B more

His 26 inch chest makes for fast knitting, especially at 19 st/4"!

I finished the back on Friday night and cast on for the front ribbing at his swimming lesson on Saturday. The intarsia starts right away. I've done this section twice; I missed a row the first time. It looks much nicer this time, as well as being the right size.

I'm not sure if he realizes I'm knitting the sweater he asked for, but he's asked for another one. He wants an Irish flag sweater. He loves flags. We spend time on google images looking up flags a lot.

mini-post

Billy's sweater is growing. I got a lot of knitting done on the bus ride in this morning. I haven't been knitting too much this week. I've been reading and last night I was exhausted so I went to bed right after B. (Which is why I knit on the way to work instead of taking my ususal nap.)

I hope to get the back done this weekend. It looks really narrow to me, but I measured him this morning and he's got the right chest measurement. I need to make it much longer.

The best part of this whole idea is the planning. I spend lots of time thinking about what yarn for who and which pattern and which month it would best fit. Google docs is my friend!

12 in 12

So, my ambitious idea for this year is one that's been done before. Knit 12 sweaters in 12 months. I've never done it before. I usually get 4 or 5 done each year. Mostly I knit the 4 sweaters for our parents, maybe one other and then lots of socks and things.

Last month while working on my Christmas gifts, I thought how great it would be if I did more than just little gifts for my family. Our parents all have multiple sweaters I've knit them. But, I've only ever made 1 sweater for one sister and nothing more than socks or hats for my brothers-in-law.

So, I decided I should knit them all sweaters. With the parent sweaters that's 11 (plus 1 for me). I've got a semblance of a plan and hope to get at least half of my Christmas gifts made throughout the year (parents will still get their sweaters for birthdays). I haven't set any rules, really. The only rule is that all 12 have to be done this year. I hope to use a lot of stash yarn (which I did last year with the parent sweaters and most of my Christmas gifts). I hope to do some sweaters that are a little challenging, but I'm looking at consisten effort here to get me through the year.

First up, is Billy. He asked me to knit him a Trickster sweater. He went as a Trickster* for Halloween and now wants a sweater.

I didn't have anything in stash so I ordered some worsted comfort from KnitPicks in red and yellow and cast on yesterday.

I hope to have it done to give to him on his birthday next month.

So, I'm being ambitious this year. Posting might be interesting if anyone actually reads this blog (especially anyone I'm related to).

*in case you haven't watched all the episodes of Destroy Build Destroy on Cartoon Network like Billy, a trickster is one of the teams that competed and they wore shirts like this.

it's dusty in here

I'm thinking of cleaning the place up and posting again. I've got a crazy ambitious plan for 2012 that's rolling around in my head.