JenLa

Back in 2006 I got a wild hair up my ass to make socks for the DH that, through average wearing would self felt. It succeeded. In fact, it felted so well that, even though the foot of the sock became a perfect fit, the legs of the socks became too short.

Thank wool I was able to find more of the yarn here, because my LYS no longer carried it. And since my discovery of magic loop, I was able to whip these puppies out in record (well, record for me, that is) time.

Of course, I wouldn’t be me, if I didn’t La-ify them. You see, on close inspection, I knitted one of the socks in-side out. And when did I discover this oh-so-shining moment of brilliance? After I had cast off both socks and was weaving in the ends, of course. Not gonna tell the DH though. He’ll never notice, and after another year’s wearing during Roman reenactment, I won’t either. Can you say dumbass? Sheesh.

What’s next? Glad you asked. Remember that Mission Possible thing I signed up for, but haven’t posted about in a long time because I haven’t really done much of anything on it? Well, that’s because all the fast and easy shit is done. Well, almost. All I have left on #7 is the shaving, the setting the grommets, and the attaching of the handles. Then it’s getting shipped to it’s new home. But while I’m procrastinating on that, I’m going to start tackling the bigger stuff, starting with…

12. Use up, throw out, burn (with video footage) or otherwise cause the scrap heap unexist.

(crap, I’m still missing a pic of the leftover superwash sock yarn…oh well…note to self)

The top row is all feltable, therefore the sock yarn, doubled on 4s and the worsted on 8s should make for some rather quick knits in the form of bags and pouches of indeterminate ugliness…pouches and bags that would be used to hid modern-day necessities at, say…a Roman reenactment event…happening in a country other than the one in which we live and the heart of the current contest I’m running here.

CLUE BY FOUR Why, yes folks, that was indeed clue #7 to the contest.

Anyhow, I’m gonna start with these yarn cupcakes…a nice baker’s dozen, and see just how many I can turn out before we leave.

Here’s clue #8

Email your entry to Jenla(dot)contest(at)gmail(dot)com by midnight Pacific time on July 4, 2008. Please include your Blog URL, Ravelry ID and your name in the body of the email. Please do not leave your contest entry in the comments section. Why would you want someone else to benefit from your cranial calisthenic? Only one entry per person, so make it count. Don’t forget to visit Fibercrack’d for bonus clues and for contest clue recap.

Have a great weekend!

Stats:

Pattern: Winged it:
Toe-Up
Magic Cast-On
Encroachment Heel
2 x 2 ribbed

Needles: Size 2 [2.75mm] 32″ addi lace (LOVE!)

Yarn: 1 ball Lana Grossa Meilenweit 100 Multijacquard [100g/462yds]

Thoughts: I was going to do the Kaylee Socks as a tribute knit to Monkey Toes, but the yarn wasn’t right for the pattern. Besides, I think I want to knit those socks for me. Yeah, I’m selfish that way. Instead, I did a simple 2×2 ribbing. I’m LOVING how quick and nice these socks turned out. Hell, I was even able to overlook that fakeisle crap in the colorway. What made my day on these socks? 2 words. Magic Loop. WHY DIDN’T ANYONE TELL ME MAGIC LOOP WAS TEH SHIT??1! OMG. So fast. So flowy. SO workin’ it! Yup, no more octopus wrestling for me…well, except for when I’m doing Rometard events.

So that does it for Goal #9: Knit self-striping socks for SIL Sophia. Woo! They’ve been mailed, and hopefully in my SIL’s hot little Denver hands any day now.

Next up? Extending the shaft (teehee) of these:

Self Felting Roman Socks of Love

They felted up just like I had hoped. In fact, they felted up so well that the leg is now too short, and the damned socks keep sinking into his shoes. Too smart for my own damn good I tells ya. Thank wool I was still able to get a hank of the Inca Alpaca in the correct colorway! Time for me to cut into my knit for the first time. YIKES!!!!!

I also need to give some love to my stalled Central Park Hoodie, which is languishing at 85% done: Hood’s knit, and all that’s left is the button band, the weaving and the sewing, and then the wearing. I’m sure hoping to get off my ass and get it done for our exciting vacation at the end of June. Shhhh, the three of you who already know about it. I’m going to run contest soon. If needs be, bribery/blackmail could be involved to keep youse quiet. Here’s my initial offer…a little sampling if you will.

I know I haven’t posted here in quite a while, especially compared to last year when Jen and I were posting almost every day. But when you feel obligated to do something it becomes more a chore than a treat and you might start resenting it. And then I found that I start posting all manner of stupid shit, just to get something up on the site. That’s the main reason why I’ve whole-heartedly embraced

So yeah, my posts may be fewer and farther between, but I’m hoping what they lack in frequency, they make up for in content.

That being said, I’ve got nothing. Well, let me rephrase that…I’ve got nothing in the remote vacinity of nothing. Yes, I’ve been knitting, but not a whole hell of a lot to show for it. And by not a whole hell of a lot I mean no FOs. Just progress really.

I’m about 2/3 of the way done with mom’s scarf, the deadline being April 12; the weekend my folks are coming for a visit. I LOVE having a guest room now, even IF certain younger members of my household who shall remain nameless, coughjuniorcough, insist on reverting it back to a junk room.

J: But it’s a spare room!
L: SPARE room does not constitute a STORE room. And it’s a GUEST room. Just because you crapped up YOUR room doesn’t entitle you to crap up the entire house.

I wonder if he’s been able to figure that’s why we’re waiting to do the bathroom remodel.

So embarrassing!

Hmmmm. Probably not. I swear, I get so tired of people with an over developed sense of entitlement. Makes me wanna invite them to take a number…

…and sit the fuck down.

Okay, where was I before Ranty Claus took over? Oh, right! Mom’s visit! I’m really looking forward to it. The last time she and dad were down we had a great time. We went antiquing in Old Towne Orange, and, being an avid, uh…rabid…ravid? reader, help herself to my knitting library. Dude!

Also, the night before last I had a disturbing dream that left me in a serious funk most of the day yesterday. I dreamt that my dad died, and his death drove my mom off the deep end. The last time I had such a soul-rendering dream was the night the Jen’s mom passed, That dream sent me into the bathroom in a fit of tears and didn’t hear the phone ring so I missed Jen’s call when it happened, and missed being there for her when she really needed me. Needless to say, I now pay attention to these dreams, even if I’m just being silly. So I called my folks yesterday and yes, my dad is still alive and kicking and annoying the hell my mother. Whew!

In the meantime, my Kaylee socks have been put on hold until mom’s scarf is done. They’re not needed until May anyway, so I have some wiggle room. Besides, I have 6 weeks to finish the scarf and redesign and knit another hat. Plenty of time! I’m loving the way the yarn feels, and the fabric is gorgeous and soft and sproingy with a decent heft. I can’t believe that so simple a pattern could yield such gorgeous results!

And then there’s my closet project with isn’t quite ready to be outted yet, but here’s a glimpse.

The clock is ticking on the ultimate end result of a many-stepped process. We’ve got an old-fashioned space race-type…errr…race going on over at Ravelry to see who can be the first to come up with a viable design replica. We’ll see!

About 10 or so months ago I knit-friended a lady who’s a regular client of one of the business owners in the building. When we first met she was only knitting scarves…out of larger-gauge and sometimes novelty yarns…on largish needles. And had been doing so for the entire 2 years she’d been knitting! She confessed that she’d LOVE to move onto more interesting and challenging projects but had no idea how to go about it. So I recommended some of my first forray-away-from-scarf-hell projects, and, though extremely challenging to begin with, she’s completed her first lace shawl, learned how to read charts, and learned how to make and attach fringe. Now she’s moved on to cabling…and Irish Hiking Scarf. Hers is gorgeous! She’s got a great eye for color and texture. Now she’s finally on Ravelry, so if all you Ravelers could, go and roll out the welcome-wagon to Rosalind1.

Mom’s 70th birthday is this Sunday. We’re having a party that’s sure to be lots of fun. It’s Mardi Gras themed, with all my mom’s closest friends coming, the little nephs making and wearing masks, Zydeco & New Orleans’ Jazz, and with me making gumbo…like I learned how to make when I was stationed in Alexandria, LA…you know, the real stuff.

The only thing that was vexing me was not knowing what to give mom for her birthday. Well, when she and dad came to visit last weekend, she put an end to that dilemma. She saw the hat I made the neph out of his garage-sale yarn, and decided how nice and toasty warm one of those will be. Just PERFECT, actually, for her Alaskan Cruise come April.

So I sent her stash diving, and she triumphantly resurfaced with this…

All 5 glorious balls of baby alpaca goodness to be exact. (I swear she should have been a knitter, she’s got a keen eye for the yummy stuff.) And I thought, hmmmm, that should be enough for a hat AND a scarf (not to mention it’ll fulfill one of my MP 2008 goals!) And I could teach her the modified loop-de-loop (third method Gracee models) method to wrap the scarf so it stays put while she’s out clambering around on glaciers and such. Yes, at 70, the woman STILL clambers. Amazing!

And I’ve got a whole week to do it in…woo! Good times, huh?

Speaking of birthdays, guess who turned 1 last week?

Dang! Wasn’t it just yesterday that Marina was born? For more birthday pics along with yesterday’s post, go here.

Yeah, so I’m knitting my ass off.

Pattern: Stulpen by Petra. Ravelry link here, pattern link here.

Yarn: Some Henry’s Attic I dyed in the dye-o-rama of which I didn’t care for the resulting colors.

Needles: US 1 Addi Turbo

Mods: none except needle size

Began: 1/22/08

Finished: 1/27/08 (these are NOT five day gloves, we will refrain from discussing my chart reading problems.)

Comments: A gift for the person I sub for at work. I bought her polarfleece convertible gloves for Christmas and she won’t stop telling me how much she loves them and how much use they’re getting, so I made her another kind. Though I don’t like the colors of this yarn, I think she will. All other qualities of the yarn are great. I’d love to have bed socks made from this yarn, especially on such small needles as I used-which resulted in a surprisingly firm yet stretchy fabric that I hope will be durable. This is part of my Mission: Possible 2008 endeavor, filed under “knit up single balls of yarn”. Since these two gloves didn’t come close to using a ball of yarn, bed socks may be in my future. I’m sick of looking at this yarn, it reminds me of tart-n-tiny candies.

Speaking of MP08, I did finally come up with my list of twelve things.

1) Spin all in progress spinning (in the month of Jan!) ever begun and abandoned. Done!

2) Spin, sell, give away or otherwise divest myself of all roving/batts purchased prior to SAFF07 by SAFF08. Got rid of two lots so far!

3) Make yarn from my own fiber animals to give to my MIL.

4) Single balls-do something with them. This does not include sock yarn, as it has a purpose already.

5) Knit something, anything from my handspun. If I make something from SAFF07 purchases, I can qualify for contest goodies in another group.

6) Knit up gift yarn. Yarn that was sent to me in love by other people shall be turned into finished objects.

7) Make at least 4 dish/wash cloths. This number should be higher, but it’s not. So there.

8.) I have a stash of cashmerino, much of it single balls of color. Find something to make that uses this up.

9) Frost Flowers and Leaves. I should either finish or rip this. Really, two years of hibernation is stupid.

10) I have owed my husband a write up of a crocheted bag pattern for his website for, well, years. Look up names of crochet stitches so this can be done.

11) Knit a babe.

12) Knit curtains for the window above my kitchen sink. (insert foreshadowing of regret here)

Some items I make may fall into more than one category. I like my goals with wiggle room, what of it?