Cough cough, sniffle

Thank you all for helping to keep me sock motivated! After a week of very little knitting, except for Tuesday night at Beverly's, I ended up spending the afternoon in bed, with the socks, yarn everywhere, and dpns that kept getting lost (white dpns, white sheets, bad). While I really want to take them out tomorrow night, the garter contraption has not yet been started, so it seems unlikely. I'm facing technical diffilculties with the suspender clips. Also, I have 74 million ends to weave in. I wouldn't normally be so picky about ends, but they are really bunchy in there.

I feel hugely antisocial right now, but not on purpose. I've been fighting off a cold with little success this week, and really need to stay home and get healthy before getting on the flight to Hong Kong on Tuesday. The BF is playing at Arlene's tonight, and I am staying here. (pout) I can't sleep, due to congestion, so I'm still knitting. Next up...more Kiri...


p.s. These socks are very hard to photograph on self while wearing. Sorry for the odd shot. Maybe I can enlist a photographer's help later on.

Very Long Socks

Very Long Socks. You might have heard of them. I seem to have fallen out of love with the poor things. For the last 2 weeks, I have done almost nothing on them. I blame the socks.

For starters, they just do not make for good subway knitting anymore. They did once, but now they are long and unwieldy. I suppose their name should have tipped me off to that one. Also, they are not cashmere. Between the Subway Hat and Clappy, I may have raised my yarn snobbishness to new and completely unrealistic heights.

And finally, at the zero hour, when I got the longer of the two on to the Bry Flex dpns, I started having major gauge stress. It seems, when looking at the mms, that my US #2 Addis and my US #2.5 Bry Flex dpns were the same size. I soon will be embarking on an attempt to rid my head of US sizes and only refer to needle size by mm...we'll see how that goes. However, the needle material difference has resulted in the same stitches per inch, but really different rows per inch. So I had to rip, and start making all the stripes on the dpns 14 rows instead of 15rows.

All this being said, I am aware that it is almost March, and that if I want to wear these this winter, I need to get a move on. So...starting today I wil try to get back in love with the @%^&*!! socks...

Wow...

I just re-read that last post, and I am scared! No, I am not!! on crack...it was a result of taking a bunch of pictures, wanting to fit them all in, and rushing a post just to get it out there. So, my apologies for the completely dreadful writing. It is taking a lot of self restraint to not frog...er...delete the whole thing and start over.

Let's try this with some sanity...As previously mentioned...er...babbled about, I started Clappy on Sunday. Here's the view on Valentina's table. I am not happy with the colors in the photo, they are much better IRL. Next time, perhaps I should take a photo in V's bathroom? Sunday night and Monday all day were spent in a hotel at 28th and Park with the BF, in an attempt to take a mini vacation from our stressful living situations in limbo. Not too terribly much knitting happened.

Tuesday I went back to work, and had my appointment for my expedited passport. When finishing up my paperwork before my appointment, I realized that the passport people still have their nasty rule that only a driver's license is a form of ID. A NYS issued non-driver ID or learner's permit is not acceptable. Of course, I had to suffer through just as much at the DMV to get aforementioned learner's permit (except for obviously the road test) but they don't care. So I put in a desperate call to the BF to see if he could meet me at the passport place and sign an affidavit saying that I am me. Since he passed a road test, apparently his word means something to them? After arriving at 11:45 for my 12:30 appointment, I was given a number, and told it would be about a 2 1/2 hour wait time....It was a bit longer... Luckily the metal detector guys allowed me to bring my knitting in, and I got almost up to the straight part of Clappy. And, with the BF there to sign the "I know her" paperwork, I now have a passport, just in time to fly off to Hong Kong on the 1st to work with sweater vendors there. Which is so not the fun you might expect. There is a big difference between the yarn I like to knit with, and the yarn we can afford for work to produce hundreds of thousands of sweaters that retail under $30.

What the @#&^$*@ have I been doing?

I have been meaning to blog lots of things...but I have been bad! For starters, last week I got my pretty yarn from Axelle...not only is the yarn itself pretty, but look at the lovely way it came all wrapped up! Gotta love opening a present... This yarn is soooo soft... I am loving it! I am having total ADD with my knitting lately, and can't figure out what to work on. Since I was at Valentina's this weekend watching her and Jackie both working on beautiful Clapotis, I had to cast on (all 2 stitches) and my attention was captivated for at least 2 hours. Then I picked up my first attempt at lace knitting, Kiri, and tried my hand at that. Tuesday I was waiting at the passport office for an expedited passport (going to HK on March 1, don't ask where my old passport is. Trust me!) and all I did while waiting was knit Clappy...Very long socks? What are those? I seem to have kicked the crack sock habit... Yes, I need to post pictures of all these new things.

In non-knitting news, I did actually make it to Central Park...

where I realized that the hat I've been working on for the BF is in fact the same color as the Gates. What's that? You thought it was a dark green hat? Oh yeah, so did I. Then I ran out of yarn.
He suggested I rip back a bit and make the dark green a stripe and finish in orange. Not the hat I had intended, because (shhhh..) I really don't care for orange. But I put that behind me, because it's not for me after all. So I ripped (which was funny, because he was quite surprised that all I did was take out the needles and pull.

He seemed to expect it to be more complicated. It is finished now (phew, one finished thing for 2005!) but I'm posting this pic anyway, because I'm amused by it. Of course, there is a post-completion saga, because the theme of my year seems to be one step forwards and two steps back. But I'll drone on about that next time.

Retroactive Gratutious Cookies

So here's something totally outdated, from before I got the internet set up here at the temporary abode... This was the scene on Valentina's table late on December 23rd after Night #3 of the 1st Annual Christmas Cookie Bake-a-thon. This is what I get for saying "I can't bake cookies." I suppose I was proven wrong...
For more details look here. And yes, I am just showing off. If you complain, I'll bake for you.

It's all about Cat Pee.

As most of you know, Fred has had a rough week. The peeing blood problem sent me rushing to the vet Sunday at 7pm, and again at midnight. And Monday at 11am, for good measure. That time they kept him, hooked him up to an IV and a mini cathader, and tried to flush all the nasty crystals and blood clots out of his little kitty bladder.

I went to visit him at the vet yesterday night. He was all tubed up, and I was very excited to see the pee in his pee bag was properly colored! They decided he doesn't need surgery right now, and hopefully with a controlled diet they can change the pH of his pee and dissolve the rest of the crystals.

This morning I got the call that I could come pick him up this afternoon. So Fred is now back home, in isolation from the other cats, so his litter box use can be monitored, and he can get his new prescription food.

He has a shaved chest and two shaved patches on his arms (those are from the IVs, no idea why they shaved his chest? Maybe from when they had the lampshade on his head?) and looks really goofy, but I am so happy he is back from the vet!!

It turns out to have cost about $800 less than I expected to get my kitten's bladder fixed, so I splurged on this. My first ever cashmere-for-me purchase! (from Axelle) There is a Clapotis-to-be...

Genuine Knitting Post!

In reality, I am obsessing on my sick kitty right now. But instead of posting about him, and a bunch of cute photos of him, I'm going to try to focus back on the yarn. Tomorrow, when we have more kitty news, I will pay homage to Fred.

I've started a hat for the BF. Been meaning to for a while, the yarn's been sitting next to my stash taunting me for 2 weeks now. It's super yummy 65% cashmere/35% silk from Downtown Yarns. Well, the green and the orange are. The natural color is cashmerino aran, because for 2 rows, who could tell the difference? I've been scaring subway riders everywhere. I cast on at home, but joined and started knitting on the train, standing up, during rush hour. The first few rows, with the dpns flopping all over the place, had quite a few people staring at me in horror. Tee Hee! So far, all progress has been made while travelling to and from work. This photo shows the lovely Lafayette Avenue subway station platform in the background. Woo!

The results of last week's Elann Alpaca Binge showed up this week. The skeins are kind of little (110 yds I think) so 14 skeins seems really moderate right now. I'm going to be working with Jody to copy...er...be inspired by.... some really cool sweaters she has. They're basically a tube and a shrug, sewn together. Lots of potential! Of course I need to turn right around and buy yarn for a Clapotis too, so it sure is a good thing I didn't make a "No more yarn buying" resolution.

Just to keep track, here's a list of UFOs. Maybe I'll link photos at some point in time. Maybe someday I'll figure out how to put all of this in the sidebar...

On the Needles:
-Very Long Socks
-Manos Afghan
-David's Subway Hat
-Cabled Zara Armwarmers

Needing Finishing:
-2 Felted Bags...belated pressies!

In Theory:
-The Jody Sweater
-Clapotis
-Womb!

Sigh, if only I didn't have a day job.