Saturday, May 31, 2008

Crunch time


It was down to the wire. I had to finish the Sockamania socks by the end of the month (tonight) to be entered into the drawing for a skien of hand dyed yarn. But a little birdie told me I should take a boat ride.....

So, I did. Even though I needed to get the socks done by tonight. While along the adventure I was able to knit, see?

Almost done right? Well, looky! looky!

Even the scuba divers saw that.....

The socks are done and now I can go back to playing Wii Fit. Yep, I made it!

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

ウィー・ボーくん、いらっしゃい


ごめん、ね。みんなにちょっとお久しぶりです。大切なお客さんがいらっしゃい、本当にウィー・ボーくんにおまたせました。12月に東京で会いました。けど、電池やソフトの問題があったそうだから 一緒に帰国ことができなかったんです。ウィー・ボー君は先の4-5ヶ月に英語が上手になって、遊びに来ました。私はチョーうれしい!でもかわいいそうな編み物ちゃんはバスに乗る時間以外にあまり遊ばない。というのは。。。ソックマニアの靴下はいっそくにならないかもしれない。
So as I was saying... I have a new guest in the house and my knitting has lost some time. TV time seems to be down and Wii-Bo time seems to be up. :) After all I had to wait 3 or 4 months for him to come over. I think I did pretty good with being patient. What do you think, Geezer? (For those of you out of the loop, Geezer seems to help enable me to get completely hooked up with Wii- Bo)
Above is the happy family picture with everyone getting along. But the unseen details are..... 3 days left in the month and the Sockmania sock, Number One was finally completed before my real life soccer match and Sock Number two was started this morning on the bus. (I should mention I took the long way home tonight to get more bus'n'needle time.) I don't think that sock Number Two will meet the dead-line for the sock yarn drawing. :( I guess this pattern keeps me on watch while knitting. Whenever I walk and knit at the same time, I seem to have stitch problems and then back tracking is needed in the next row. :( It just seems to take some of the speed out of making a pair of nice socks. well, I better leave you with one final picture and an invite to go skiing... then get back to knitting these socks!

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

One off and then one on

Today I completed another pair of socks. (Yes, I realize this is a little bit of a shock.) This pair of socks is for my supervisor. She wanted a pair of hand knit socks. The problem is... the stripes matched up almost perfectly, so the socks don't look hand made. :( I hope that will be acceptable, what do you think? I really was not trying to match I was just knitting on the bus and started the second sock. When I looked at it later the sock just seemed to match the beginning of sock number one. Kind of a sock miracle! But really check it out, look closely at the toes they even came out perfectly with matching little blue stripes. Now do I need to remind you of the broken needle incident caused by this pair of socks? Let's just take a look at the miracle cotton/wool socks, Online Summer colors. Nice and soft.

Update on the needle crisis: The replacements just arrived in the mail...... to my other address. But they will be in my hands soon.

Socks are for the bus, and the blanket is for watching basketball. Here is an updated picture on my blankie. This picture shows 50 squares, almost 4 rows of 14. Since there still are a few more double headers I should be able to get a few more squares on tonight. :) Although the temperatures are going up a little this weekend, so it might be an outside weekend.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

And the day started like.....


Do you see the problem? These bus incident almost had me on the phone to the 911 knitting police. A crime happened to me on the bus.
Picture this: Sockergirl serenely sitting on her bus to work, bus pass safely tucked in pass holder, busy with sock knitting in hands. Almost zen like, right? Then "pop!" and all knitting comes to a halt, Sockergirl looks down to assess knitting damage. Sock knitting was fairly safe and secure. But the favorite, preferred Knitpicks Options knitting needle was shockingly out of commission. The nickel plated needle snapped off of the connection. What was sockergirl to do for the rest of the bus ride and the transfers? How about the return trip?? Sockergirl was worried how the day would go from here!!!!!
Sockergirl does not carry excess pocket books as a skien of wool is much lighter and more useful in almost all cases. You can tie-up a bank robber with a ball or yarn. How about that romance novel or wall street thriller? I think you get me point.
The bus ride was ruined, and then my Boris Yeltsin looking bus driver sped off as I tried to get the connection. Again, left stranded with out my knitting to keep my company. I did get to work barely ahead of time and the day was okay. Come on, work is nothing like relaxing knit time at home in pjs.
Before leaving work I called knitpicks and they hooked me up with some new needles in the mail. :) Kind of a happy ending, right? regardless, was I tempted to walk to the next bus stop and buy some new needles for the ride home. I resisted and instead looked around work for a not too intellectual enjoyable book for the ride home.

Here is the product of two weeks of bus riding. This is the Sock Madness, sock number 4 pattern. It was an interesting pattern but not one for racing. This is Cherry Tree Hill color way of Loden. Nice yarn! One bus gal I seemed to see frequently at the first bus stop asked if I was making socks for the military because I keep making green socks. She will soon learn that I don't make a pair of socks everyday. Realistically, a pair a week or two. Next picture!

Yep! Sock scrap swap yarn. These are for my neglected blanket. It might be getting too big to haul around and knit on the sometimes crowded bus, so I will stick to breaking sock needles while I knit ligthening fast!

Oh and here is one more bundle of scraps to enhance my blanket to look a little less "uptight" and more "perky." We will see the effect in a couple of months, come summer, when I get back on my knitting schedule. I seem to be getting knitting orders riding around on the bus. These orders will help decrease the yarn stash and aid the costs to keep the yarn warm in the winter.
In conclusion to this day, I am going to stop telling my knitting friends to "break a needle" on their new exciting project. AND to always carry a spare set of needles.