I have lost my everloving mind

My life apparently isn't busy enough. I am working 5 days per week, anywhere from 8 to 12 hours per day, I am spinning like a mad woman, I have about 15 rovings and 4 handspun yarns to list on Etsy, so what am I up to now? The Mystery Stole 3 KAL!

See that teeny-tiny crochet hook there towards the bottom (the size 13 crochet hook)? That is used to get the yarn through the size 8 beads used on the stole. See the glasses over on the right? They are used so I can see the teeny-tiny hook on the crochet needle and so I can get the teeny-tiny hook through the center of the beads. Man, it really bites to get old... +1.25 correction (as in reading glasses, ewwwwww). I color coded the chart to make life easer for my ADD brain. I have also learned to count my stitches at the end of every odd row to keep from either tinking or heading to the frog pond.

Here is my progress so far, after about 37 rows. This is my first time doing any real lace knitting on lace weight yarn. So far, so good. I did the test swatch last night. I am using a really nice baby alpaca/silk blend on size 4 needles. The yarn overs show up very nicely so the needles were the right size. How many times have I frogged this puppy so far? Only 3. I am pretty proud of that. This pattern uses beads (another first) and I am hoping to keep up with the KAL during the summer. If it turns out well, I will probably take it with me up to Minnesota next June for my (ahem) 25th high school class reunion. We will be on a riverboat cruise (last I heard) going down the St. Croix River in the evening, so it will get a little nippy during the night.

Why am I the only person who GAINS weight when I get sick? I spent 2.5 days this week with the stomach virus that has been going around work. Oh Joy and Rapture! When I am too sick to want to spin up any wool, I am not doing well... I am plying up the last of some BFL I dyed and will list it on my Etsy site. I started spinning up the Superwash BFL and it spins up like a dream! I am looking forward to finishing that and knitting up some lacy socks with it.

The spinning is going well. I am still knitting on some socks and this stole. The dyeing is a blast! I am finally getting off of my butt and getting samples into my own dyeing notebook so I know what I have dyed up. It's fun to experiment with colors and textures.

The weight loss is going pretty well. I got off of the diet for a while and now I am back on it. I started back in March and I have gone from a size 16 (at about 185 lbs) down to a size 10 (at about 160 lbs). I would still love to get down to a size 6 by next year. Once I get back on nights, I can start skating again. Until then, it's the weights and my usual run around the factory like a crazy woman.

This is Natasha. Somehow, she got herself on top of a 10 foot ladder and is trying to figure out a way to dine on canary for dinner. Godzilla (the canary) does not like the idea.

July looks to be a busy month. My dear hubby got us tickets to Oz-fest later this month, we have tickets to the Rush concert and then we are taking the motorcycle to San Diego for a comic book/sci-fi con. It should be a lot of fun. Until then, I get to wait for the last Harry Potter book to come out in print (yup, this geek has a copy on advance order like 10 million other kids in this country) and knit some more on the stole. Tomorrow, DH and I will have a grand adventure putting up our new ceiling fan in the bedroom. We got the fan on Memorial Day weekend but we haven't gotten around to installing it until now. Well, we sort of needed the 10 foot ladder that Natasha was standing on to be able to install the thing. It will be nice to have since the temps are still in the 110+ F range. The floor fan just isn't doing the job any longer.

Enough stalling, time to get back to working on the stole and get some yarn plyed up. I have until next Friday (until clue 2 comes out) to finish 100 rows...

Sicky Sockies

What did I do while I was spending the better part of two weeks lying on the couch with the bug? The first thing that the little "inner voice" was urging me to do was to finish a pair of socks that I had started but had been sitting in a backpack for the better part of 4 months. This first pair (in purple) is Koigu, knit on size 1 needles using a pattern from the Sensational Knitted Socks book by Charlene Schurch. (I absolutely LOVE her book). This sock was such fun to work on! I finished this one in a few days and wondered what else to do?


So I decided to go into the stash for the beginnings of sock #2. This was the sock yarn that was sent to me during the Dye-O-Rama swap that I was involved with last year. I had this yarn all wound into balls to be used, but I couldn't decide what to use it for. The colors are absolutely GORGEOUS in this yarn and the yarn is REALLY soft!!! Makes me want to purr like a little kitty! So, after not seeing anything in my sock books that made me want to go "OOH, I need to knit THAT sock", I decided to go to one of my Stitch Directory books and pick out a stitch and design a sock out of it! This sock was knit toe-up, used a short-row heel and topped off with a 2x2 ribbing.

Here is the top-down view of the sock. I thought a lace pattern would be fun with this sock, since the yarn is so heavy. It would have made a perfect winter sock up in New Mexico, but since I have moved down to Arizona, I needed something that would be a little bit cooler. If anyone is interested, let me know and I can post a pattern of how to make this sock (or at least the stitch pattern I used for the leg and top of the foot). I absolutely LOVE how this sock turned out. I loved it so much that I wore it to work for the first two nights of the week! Very comfy, nice and soft and keeps the feets nice and comfy!

I have a third sock that I finished last night but I haven't got the pictures uploaded to my laptop yet. That sock started as one thing and ended up turning into something completely unexpected.

I am a strange animal. I love to knit socks but I really hate to follow patterns. Why? It seems like the patterns look so nice on paper, but one I knit them up, they are either too loose on my foot or too tight. (This is always following patterns for "average" foot size. WTF is average???)So, through my vast many years of sock knitting (OK, 2 years), I have come up with a system that guarentees that my socks will fit me every time. Disclaimer, this works for me, you may not find the same results...

Here is what I do:
1. Knit a gauge swatch. (I can hear the grumbling already) I knit the swatch because I need to know what this yarn knits up like with this set of needles I am working with. I have had the same brand of yarn give me different gauge with the same needles. It's an important part of the formula.
2. Measure my foot width at the ball of my foot (the widest part on my foot). I take this measurement to get the size of the tube. Now, what if my ankles/legs are wider than my foot? Easy! Take a measurement for your foot and take a measurement for your ankles/legs. You can then increase the leg/ankle portion of the sock for your measurements!
3. Subtract 1/2 inch from my foot measurement. You can also multiply the foot measurement by 0.90 and use that number. I have an 8.5 inch measurement around the ball of my foot. (I subtact 1/2 inch since I tend to knit tight)
4. Multiply my gauge swatch times my result from step 3. For the current socks I started, I have a gauge swatch of 8 stitches per inch. Step 3 gives me a foot measurement of 7.65 inches. If I multiply the two = 7.65 * 8 = 61.2 stitches.
5. I look in my pattern books, my sock charts, my sock patterns and look for something within 4 stitches of this number. For example, I may find a really cool 8 stitch repeating pattern that I want to use, I would cast on 64 stitches. Or I may find a nice 6 stitch repeating pattern that I like, so I would cast on 60 stitches.

I find this system allows me to get socks that fit me well and I can use the stitch patterns from other sock patterns or from sweater patterns, blanket patterns or any other source out there. It allows me to be creative. From there, just insert your favorite heel and toe in the right places and you are off and running.

I also tend to carry the leg pattern down onto the top of the sock rather than knitting stockinette stitch over the whole foot. This is a matter of personal preference. I tend to walk around my house in stocking feet all the time so the extra pattern does get seen in my socks. If you tend to be the type that wears socks only in shoes and no one sees the feet, you may not want to knit the extra pattern.

That is the one thing I love about knitting socks! Once you understand how a sock is made and how to make the socks, you can use your imagination and make any kind of sock you desire! No patterns are needed!

How is the workout going? This week, I have been the weight room twice, done the bike and the weight lifting. I still need to get in there later tonight for another workout.

Yarn diet? The socks I started today are "ankle socks" (I always called them booties) that I am making out of some Lorna's Laces from my stash. So far this year, we are 3/3 in using our stash yarn!

New Year's Resolutions - 25 days late

First resolution - more pictures of man butt!!! This was some nice man butt I found at the F1 race last year. I can't remember which crew this man butt comes from, but the one on the left is really yummy! I need more pictures of man butt in the collection.

Well, being down sick for two weeks really settles a person down and makes them think about important things in life, such as the ability to breathe using one's nose and the joy of using one's lungs without it triggering a coughing fit! Sitting on the couch, trying to recover and knitting like crazy for 2 weeks has got me thinking about New Year's Resolutions. Now, I am not the type of person who normally makes resolutions. In fact, I have never made a New Year's Resolution because my attention span isn't long enough to carry me through a couple of hours, let alone 12 months. I have a couple of goals that I would actually like to TRY to accomplish this year, so I figured I would make the dreaded resolutions and see how they turn out. I figure that if I share them with everyone, it forces me to keep doing it and forces me to actually follow through. Who knows? Maybe they will work!

Goal #1: Be able to fit into a size 6 by the end of June.

Now, how in heaven's name do I plan to do this one since I like to be seditary and I have a sweet tooth? Let's break it down into semi-managable steps. First, I will exercise 3 nights per week while at work! My plan is to hit the weight room at work 3 nights during my work week and work out. 3 of those days will involve 30 minutes of sweaty "get your heart pumping" type of aerobic exercise. My current fave is the stationary bike, but they have a rowing machine, stair climber, treadmill and elliptical trainer to choose from. It doesn't matter which one I play on, I just need to choose one for 30 minutes each day. 2 of the 3 days will also involve weight training. I will start with the upper body only (biceps, triceps, chest and shoulders) to keep it simple. Once I have been doing the lower body stuff for a couple of months, I will revisit adding lower body weight training to the schedule. I would like to add my favorite exercise (ice skating) to the schedule also, but I am not sure about how much time I have to devote to that. Let's put ice skating on the "to do" list and get to it as we get more time.

Diet - Do we have to do that??? Nope! Every time I try a diet, I fail in the most miserable way! Since there is no diet out there that allows me to eat French Fries and truffles, I am not doing a diet! Well, OK, I am going to eat differently. I am calling this my "Laurie Moderation Plan". I will allow myself to eat anything in moderation. How will this look? I am not sure yet. I figure I will drink my two 1000ml bottles of water per day as a starter. I will work on eating more unprocessed foods and eating more veggies. I will try to cut the soda down to 1 can per day and cut the sugary snacks down. For right now, I will settle for 1 sugary snack per day. If I do eat a sugary snack, it will be a serving size as portioned on the label. So, if a pint of ice cream has 4 servings, I can only eat 1/4 of it. That shouldn't be too hard. I will concentrate on eating in moderation and not eating because I am bored, tired, depressed or any other emotional eating. I will start slow with this one and introduce one good habit at a time. I am figuring slower is better.

Right now, I am wearing a size 16 pair of jeans. I would like to be wearing a pair of size 6 jeans by the end of June. OK, so they may be a REALLY tight fitting pair of size 6 jeans that I may not be able to breathe in once I button them up, but I would like to get to that level. Hopefully by the end of August the size 6 jeans will allow me enough room to breathe!

Goal #2: Slim down the yarn stash

OK, now that a bunch of the unpacking is done in the house, I realize that I have a LOT of sock yarn. OK, I have a shitload of sock yarn. I really need to use the sock yarn that I have and knit myself a bunch of really nice socks. So, this year's socks will be worked using yarn in the stash! There are a couple of exceptions to this rule. 1) my current Sock of the Month club membership does not count. 2) if Scout has a really nice new color, I can pick that up or 3) Out of town yarn shop purchases don't count.

Ziggy Update: He is still with us! Yeah! He is going downhill, which we knew would happen. He has his good days and his bad days. Recently, I have just taken to carrying him around all over the house when I am not working so I don't disturb his sleeping on me. He still likes to sleep on my head, but he has been sleeping a lot more lately. He is still eating and still showing his dominance over the other male kitties in the family, so we just keep spoiling him!

Tomorrow, I will try to post pictures of the 3 pair of socks I have finished since I got sick. One pair was a UFO from August, the other two were started this month!