First wear of the Monkey Socks

I wore the Monkey socks to work today. Towards the end of the day, I was in my boss's office with our head network guy who noticed my socks. The bright red stood out against the dark greys and blacks I was wearing. Then my boss asked if I had made the socks. Then the two of them marveled at sock construction. It's nice to know that I have work people trained :D

Continuing with the Monkey socks

Yes, I keep this sock in my purse. We had a fire drill at work today so Svitlana and I walked ourselves to Starbucks to get a drink and found a nice bench to sit at and wait out the fire drill. I, of course, pulled the sock out of my bag only to find that one of the needles had been pulled out so I spent my time putting the stitches back on the needle before we were able to go back inside.

Weight slowly lifting

I guess I over schedule myself. Work has been hectic. In addition, I've been trying to get another orchid out in the span of a week and that added to it. I would wake up and have a headache within an hour and go to work. I'd come home from work, take a quick nap and continue with the orchid and my head would continue to hurt. Well, work is still...work, but the orchid is done. I spent most of the day today at Bead Obsessions working on the orchid and just hanging out and socializing in a non workplace environment. I needed that because I haven't been able to get out because I've had to be some place where I could work on it. So, the finished piece is now at the shop. Class is scheduled for August 25, 2007 (Saturday). I will be sending the pattern to my two testers in the next day or so.


I also knitted a little on a Monkey< for myself in Schaefer Anne:
This is just the first sock

I also started in on Mystery Shawl 3. I actually started last night with black (Toho #49) hex beads but they blended in with the yarn too well. My initial instinct had been to go with this pewter/gunmetal colored hex bead that I thought I had. But I didn't have any, until today, when I was at the shop:


While I was at the shop, Patricia was playing with some earrings and that inspired me to make some earrings with the silver beads because well, all I had was the knitting! So while I was looking at beads for the earrings, I saw the silver curved tubes and remembered that I had been wanting to make another bangle bracelet, so I did both:


This is basically the bangle bracelets and beginning earrings class at Bead Obsessions. It was quick and easy and just what I needed.

So after all of that, I came home and took another nap, and my brain doesn't quite feel like it's just in seizure mode, but just a little bit. It's getting better. Tomorrow is a force 4 hours in front of the ultimate brain musher...the new tv :)

Monkey off my back

Everyone periodically has a monkey on their back. Yeah, this was my monkey:



Photo is courtesy of Amber. I was zooming along on these socks until the trip to New York when I knit and knit and knit and knit and knit. The continuous knitting on double pointed needles was NO GOOD and so I had to pause in the knitting. I had one and a half socks. After resting my hands for a couple of weeks, I picked up the needles and continued on like the tough cookie that I am. Well, after a row, my hands hurt again. My hands don't seem to agree with knitting in the round on tiny dpns. It because the monkey on my back that wouldn't go away. Then, I realized that I could very possibly switch over to 2 circular needles to continue on and finish the second sock. Why would circs be better than dpns? Well, for one, I wouldn't be contorting my left hand in various ways. When working with dpns, I can't knit continental. The needles and yarn and hands all get in the way of each other. So, I have to throw. But when I throw, my hands start to hurt, a lot. Switching to 2 circs, my hands wouldn't have to contort because stitches I'm not knitting sit on a flexible cable that can be moved easily out of the way.

So the Monkey is off my back. Details:

Yarn: Mama E's C*EYE*BER Fiber sock yarn in Poppy

Needles: Crystal Palace bamboo in size 2, switched to something grey and metal, also in size 2.

Pattern: Monkey from Cookie the great.

Next up, I've started working on Widdershins for some cabling fun. Yes I'm still throwing. Needles are too small for me to have enough control over tension to knit continental.

One Monkey, To Monkeys

I just need to kitchner the second Monkey and then I'm done with the knitting! I'll do this at lunch tomorrow. Close my door, eat my food, kitchner my sock, take a nap :-) Then, all that's left is weave in the seams, put them on and take a picture. And I guess wash them, wear them out once, and wash them again before sending it to my friend.

It's been a while

Since I've gone days without posting. Work is my explanation. My brain is too tired to come up with things to say. Update on projects. I haven't beaded much since the last post. I've spun and knitted some. I've got the back and one sleeve of the Flower Meadow Shrug done. I still have another sleeve and the lace edgings. I forgot how quickly worsted weight yarn knits up. I've also switched Monkey onto DPNs. The sock would probably have gone into the "Forever Unfinished" bin if I hadn't because I don't think I'll be knitting with small DPNs again. It hurts too much. I've got 4 more repeats to go and then I can start the decreases for the sock and then be done with knititng. For finishing these two items, I can go get....

Lake Placid is a beautiful place. I wish they hadn't moved the annual league tournament away from there.

I...

• was finally able to switch over to blogger beta, new blogger, whatever you want to call it and add tags!


• am still in the process of tagging all my posts, most recent ones being tagged first. I've got 2 years worth of babblings. Major categories (Beaded Flowers, Knitting, Fiber) are there


• got me some Moo cards. I've liked this idea as a personal calling card after seeing Amber's set. There are beady things on them which will come in handy for teaching!


• Managed to pick up stitches on the second Monkey sock. I knit 2 rounds tonight and that was about as much as I could do:
  
  
  But in the mean time, I have lots of beady and fibery things to keep busy with.


• Continuing to spin and fondle the suri alpaca/mohair blend.

One monkey

I still need to weave in the ends but otherwise, I've got a sock. My foot is really warm! I still marvel at the wonders of knitting a sock! Tomorrow, I start on the other sock. Then, after that I'll be starting on the Flower Meadow Shrug. I bought the pattern and yarn from Lisa Souza at Stitches East. Not only am I trying to be a good girl in terms of fiber and bead buying, I'm trying to stay monogamous to my knitting projects! And somewhere in here, I'll finish up the Flaming Moth because I got my yarn from Lisa Souza! Still waiting on the Sock! yarn part of the order.

Weekend fun and more orchids

Saturday was spent doing a lot of spinning. Sunday was spent teaching intro to French Florals. Monday was spent day tripping in NYC on a bead and yarn crawl. I bought A LOT of beads... I also bought some yarn. But I need to take a break from the knitting because my hands are getting tingly.



Monkey while at Knit New York.
We introduced a newbie knitter to the joys of a yarn swift and ball winder and had many people come out back to find what the laughter was about. I'm exhausted so I left work at 5:30 today to come home, eat, do some beading and sleep. Beading consisted of finishing up the orange orchid here:

The orange is prototype 2. The white was prototype 1.

I think that I am actually happy with the result of prototype 2. The petal proportions are about right. I think I'll stare at the lip a little more to see if I like it. Also, those silver lined orange beads are a much better improvement over the pearl white. I think I also need to do some shading.

Current project status

• I'm working on some calla lilies for Bead Obsessions. I'm bringing the first one over on Sunday and I'm going to make a couple more for an arrangement. The class is on February 10th.
  


• Flaming moth is still sitting around since I'm still in Lisa Souza's dye queue.


• Doceur et Soie moth is being worked on. I hope to present it next Friday and show it off next Thursday night at SLK. This means that it needs to be blocking by Wednesday night. I'm going to be a knitting fiend the next couple of days.


• Leaf Litter - I'm almost done spinning the first 2 oz. Remember I started this just before Christmas? I've been doing this a little bit at a time at a really thing thread. It will be plied to probably something like light sockweigh after it's been set.


• I just cast on for Cookie's Monkey sock pattern.


• And of course, I have lots of other knitting and beading stuff. But hopefully, some pictures to come!

Pictures pictures

Christmas was great! I got blocking wires! And a WPI tool! I don't think I've ever gotten anything bead or knitting related until this year. I have some pictures from then and I'll post them later.

I'm off to Florida tomorrow for the "Florida College Classic" to watch Cornell, Maine, UNH, and Western Michigan play each other. It's another 6am flight. Urg. I just took a 6am flight yesterday from Providence to DC. I have with me


the Wing o the Moth shawl in progress. I have about 50 rows to go and then I can break out the new blocking wires.

I've also decided that I'm going to make Monkey using the Mama E sock yarn I bought earlier.

I've also been spinning the Spunky Eclectic. It's amazing how the colors of the fiber lay in the roving and then when you spin it up...it's not quite what you expect. I'm probably at about single ply lace right now...wondering if I should ply. I do have 4 oz of this stuff and I'm thinking about working my way through Victorian Lace Today.