Friday, January 25, 2008

I Want to Knit Three Things At Once

Except I'm not an octopus and don't have 4 extra appendages handy. Plus...that's a lot of stitch-counting!

Tonight, I finally finished the toe on the first of Daniel's socks. Now, to do the afterthought heel. The one thing I found weird was that the decreases weren't exactly letting the sock lie flat. I hope I didn't do something weird like twist it - I simply rotated how I was doing the decreases... I just rotated Cat Bordhi's instructions for the toe decreases by 90 degrees (because of how the sock was set up on my needles). HMMMM...?? Anyway, a picture is below:


I also finally found where the Fiber Gallery is located. It's on 70th and Greenwood, and hilariously JUST UP THE STREET from all the Phinny Ridge things I like, such as Red Mill Burgers, and (more importantly) the Frock Shop. Really. I can't believe I've never seen it before. I went in after stalking the place (a.k.a. waiting for it to open), and right in front of my eyes were baskets full of the new Noro sock yarn. I couldn't resist - 5 lb-reward-yarn be damned! This was even in a colorway I'd be ogling for a while (plum / olive tones):


I haven't decided what to do with it yet, but the lady at the store said she was able to knit THREE socks out of one ball, so I could potentially do two knee-high stockings (?)

I also picked up a copy of "Selbuvotter", the two-color mitten book by Terri Shea. Amazon never has a copy in stock when I look, and it was the same price as buying it online at Knitpicks or something, so I supported my LYS and bought it at the Fiber Gallery. Terri Shea seems to live in the Seattle area, which is pretty neat, too. And she haunts the Weaving Works - maybe I'll get to see her one day! :)

The second WIP is my Ms. Marigold vest, from ZephyrStyle. I'm almost finished with my first ball of yarn - which is pretty exciting, because I don't tend to do projects that require more than one ball of yarn. But now that I am getting more confident in my skills, that may change. I know, it looks like a weird red blob right now. Trust me, it's a top-down vest. :-)

Lastly is a reincarnated Nakiska. I got pissed after the last time I knit it and it wouldn't even go over my head. However, I refused to waste a skein of alpaca / silk yarn that felt so lovely. So, I set it aside for a few months. Finally, after receiving my KnitPick's Options set (nickel plated needles) in the mail a week or so ago, I decided to increase needle size and attempt my first-ever Magic Loop cast-on. Surprise - I love Magic Loop! (Thousands of opining knitters can't be wrong....) I found a great tutorial online just by Googling "Magic Loop Method", and clicking on the first reasonable looking link.

This headband is a relatively quick knit. I think it's only like 50 rounds, max, or something like that. The places I get slowed down are the cabling rows and the seed stitch (so... beginning, middle, and end. ;-) )

Since Daniel has been out of town, I've taken advantage of the free time and updated my Ravelry queue, Flickr account, and Facebook / Myspace pages. And did I mention I've been knitting? :)

Tomorrow I'd like to work on installing my TV wall-mount. I have had the mount for a couple of weeks now, and I just borrowed a corded drill from my friend Tori, so I am hoping that this can happen soon. I measured the mid-point of the mounting area earlier, but I think I need to buy better molly-bolts and stuff from Home Despot than were provided in the mounting kit... although, well...I mean... do I trust them?

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