It’s Rocket in a Tree!

moar funny pictures

It’s not actually posted on the site, I just submitted it. If you click on the picture you can vote for it, but I don’t think it’ll do any good.

I have this theory. I think when I’m unhappy and lonely, I write much more. I’ve been really really happy these past few months, and so, no urge to write. I haven’t been writing for Yelp, my LiveJournal, anywhere really.

But, this blog is sad and lonely, so post time!

First off, I did finish the Drunken Bees socks.

I love how they turned out - I used a french heel and toe.

Let’s see… what else is going on?

Woah! Who is that? It’s none other than Kevin’s (New Kevin, not Old Kevin, yes I somehow fell in love with someone with the same name as my ex. WTF?) and mine new kitten!

We decided that Hunter needed a playmate. Some folks down the street from him had kittens, and he was the last one. He has a harelip, and folks would come, look at him, and decide not to take him. Its not a big deal - he can eat and drink just fine. The vet says his palate fused, so while he’ll try to close it up a bit when we neuter him, its really just cosmetic at this point.

He’s totally,totally cute. He’s a huge bundle of energy - he and Hunter have been happily chasing each other around for the past day or so. Katie is like “EEEEEH”, but she’ll get over it.

His markings are totally awesome. He’s a squirly kitteh!

Kevin’s son is completely convinced that its HIS kitten. He played with him non stop for 3 hours. We haven’t named him yet, but they keep calling him Super Dude. I’m resisting it, but he is pretty awesome and bouncy.

Well, you are in LUCK!

(In the above picture (which Barb took for me - thanks Barb!), you can see my car, part of the moose sweatshirt I’m wearing, the fact that I badly  need a pedicure, and far more pudgy leg than most folks would like to see.  Oh, and the sock.  Sort of.   My cell phone picture taking capability is low, and god forbid I carry around a camera.)

In any case, you can see that I’m on the foot.  I’ve decided that I lack the brain power to keep up the partial cable chart down the sides of the foot, so I’m doing 1×1 rib, with the main cable panel down the center.

(In this picture, you can see Barb’s shawl, my pudgy toes, and some brickwork.)

If I reknit this this pattern, I think I would use size 1s, as the pattern calls for.  The 0s are making a pretty dense fabric, and are a smidge tight on the legs.  I like how the foot is fitting though.

First up, August. I selected some lovely Schachenmayr nomotta Regia Crazy Color 6-ply / 6-fädig that I had bought at Little Knits when they put it on sale for like 10 cents a ball or something cruel like that. I was worried that with the low yardage and the sport weight yarn I’d be making anklets for everyone, so I used Kim Salazar’s Pine Tree Sock pattern, because it was toe up. As you can see, I had more than enough yardage to make a very nice pair of size six hobbit feet socks.

Hunter is not impressed with the regia. He didn’t try to eat it once! I was lazy and did an Estonian Cast off on the cuff, which is why they are so wavy. But they are good and stretchy, unlike my first “normal” cast off. (Yes, Barb, you were right. :)) I’m not sure its actually called Estonian Cast Off, but I learned it in a Nancy Bush class about Estonian Lace.

Now on to September! In August, a group of friends bought me this skein of totally awesome Socks that Rock Lightweight in the very very very very wanted Oregon Red Clover Honey colorway. Why?  Because I rock.  *preen*  Hee.

I cast on for Drunken Bees in September, which meant it was stashed for a few days, so it TOTALLY COUNTS as a WOW! selection.

Henri Emile Rat says it ought to be called Rat Colorway, cause it matches him. Here’s a close up of the sock.

I so love Socks that Rock.

It’s done!   Yes, that’s Hunter’s head.   He’s been trying to eat it, since its made from 6 balls of Rowan Felted Tweed.

This was a pretty quick knit - the pattern came from a Japanese Knitting book (Couture Knit 11 Elegance Knit), and it wasn’t at all hard to follow the chart.

Here’s a close up of the flower motif:

I also finally uploaded some new submitted patterns to the Island Of Misfit Patterns - go check out the Socks section in particular!

Unfortunately, that has often led to very slooooow Wow! Shipments.

This post is both for Barb’s Simba and mine July Wow Shipments.

First, Simba.   Simba signed up for the club.  He had all this to pick from.

So, he looked and sniffed and wandered around…

And picked out a lovely skein of Lucy Neatby!

Simba is super excited!

Now, for me, I got a lovely skein of Socks that Rock Lightweight Calico!

Note:  This post was made under the influence of half a bottle of Lynfred Winery Cranberry Wine.

Yes, that’s right, it’s now time for the Wow!  Look at what I found in my Stash! Sock Club.   The idea was actually Monica’s - mainly, we have way too much sock yarn to be joining any clubs, and yet, we wanted to be special too.

The original name for the club was “I wish I could join a sock yarn club but I already have way too much sock yarn in my stash”. The shortened name would’ve been “IWICJASYCBIAHWTMSYIMS” which is a little cumbersome. So we came up with this dandy club of our own.

Here are the rules:

1. Once a month, go into your stash.
2. Find a skein of sock yarn.
3. Take a picture of it and post it on your blog or just wave it around and go “WOW! Look what I got this month!”
4. You get extra points if the skein is still in the bag or box you brought it home in.
5. You get super extra points if the receipt is still with the sock yarn.
6. You get quadruple points if you actually make a pair of socks out of that skein.

What do you do with the points? If you earn 90 million by the end of the year, you get to buy more sock yarn!

You too could join this fun and exciting group! If you’re on Ravelry the group is here. But you don’t have to be on Ravelry to be part of this awesome group!  Just stick this button on your blog and link back to this post.  (Well, put it on your own server, then stick it on your blog.  Or don’t use the button at all.  We don’t care.):

Then post once a month, and you are SO part of our awesome club.

Thanks to the awesome Julianne for our graphics!

P.S.  You can find me on Ravelry here.

I didn’t write that caption - mine was not nearly as funny.  But when you upload an image to the lolcat builder, other folks can use them to make their own.   Laurel actually took that picture, and I know I’ve posted it to this blog before.

Knitting wise, I’ve been working on the “Flower Shawl” from Couture Knit Elegance 11 Knit that Monica lured me into buying.  It’s a Japanese knitting book.  I cropped out this picture based on the preview.

This super nice blogger posted a better picture of the book and pattern.  Japanese patterns are actually standardized by the Japanese government, so once you know the chart symbols, it ought to be fairly straight forward.    However, I was having a heck of a time figuring out the yardage required.   Luckily, the above link translated the critical bit, and I was able to figure out that it uses a little under a 1000 yards of a DK weight yarn.   I had some dark green Rowan Felted Tweed in my stash that is working perfectly for it.  Mine is more rustic, but I love how its looking.

However, apparently I’m too lazy to take a picture, so you all will have to wait.

Speaking of Japanese Knitting books, YesAsia.com has a ton of them, and they do free international shipping if you order over 25 dollars.   Best yet, their site is largely in english.  What I’ve been doing is finding a knitting book, and then clicking my way through the suggestions.  Many of them have pictures of the inside of the book you can preview as well, which helps.

Dottie Dog!

She came from Knitted Toys: 25 Fresh and Fabulous Designs by Zoe Mellor.   I love this book - all of the animals are adorable in it.   I used Elann’s Sonata  instead of the Rowan Handknit Cotton the pattern called for.  Talk about an expensive puppy if I had knit it out of Rowan.

It worked out beautifully - Sonata has a huge color range, so it was easy to substitute.  In the book, Dottie is blue, but since Dottie is going to live with a girl baby, I made her pink.

She’s actually going to live with the boyfriend’s coworker’s daughter, and the boyfriend requested pink.   I’m clearly in love, since I hate pink.   But I love how Dottie Dog turned out, even if she did get into all our food at Panera.

I only used 1 and a half skeins of the pink, but I bought 3 skeins.  So, I have plenty left over.   Her orange nose comes compliments of Monica, because I bought the wrong color of orange from Elann.

I hope you don’t get a beer can stuck up your butt!

(Picture from Aimee, who says it made excellent chicken from this recipe. Which Dee originally sent me, and I forwarded to Aimee.)