SockTart

SockTart Episode Nine: More Generic Goodness!

Maire gets together with Lhiabelle (Sherri) and Sukuti (Morgan) for a few drinks, some turkey, and banishment of the husbeasts to the basement.  Join us for a real Canadian Kitchen-party, Socktart-style!
**Warning: We talk briefly, yet frankly, about hormones at one point, particularly regarding birth control**

On/Off the needles:

Morgan:

• Monkeymen for her husband Wargh, yarn from Dyelots in Eugene OR.
• Had problems with the Susanna pattern, couldn’t get it working with the BMFA Chapman Springs yarn
• Is also doing a pair of Monkeys
• Has cast on Luminiere with the Chapman Springs.

Maire:

• Done both Mummy socks from Super Sock Scarefest (Gets Sherri to model as the Mummy Socks attack her feet!)
• Not sure what the Sunstone is going to be.  Possibly Nevermore by Yarnyenta.  Needs to read the errata.  Had been thinking of the SKA Mystery Sock for September, but not sure.

Sherri:

• Gusset done on Sweetpea socks
• Muscari sock (by Suzi Anvin) casted on and ripped back.  Pride colourway didn’t work out well with it.
• Now going to be Pembrokeshire Pathways.

Random Chatter:

• We discover that none of us are continental knitters, and discuss the Yarn Harlot’s production-style knitting.  All of us are multi-generational knitters.
• We talk about how WoW interferes with our knitting progress
• How needle size throws off your gauge
• Having to think more than usual about knitting.
• The Yarn Harlot’s Production-style knitting
• Guilty pleasure movies & Christopher Walken. We’ve been told to check out the Chicken & Pears video on Youtube
• Warcrack and Evercrack are discussed
• We fondle yarn, particularly Noro Silk Garden Sock
• We discuss Noro in general.  Kureyon and Silk Garden sock in particular.
• We discuss spinning wheels & the proper pronounciation of ‘Louet’ (Canuckistani Grammar Lessons — Zed, Not Zee!)
• We go over how survival skills have changed into leisure activities.
• Sherri gushes over Eric at Cables & Lace.com’s dyeing work.
• Morgan will be sending Maire her alterations of the Monkeymen pattern that includes the purls.  Makes a more stretchy fabric for those with wider ankles & feet.
• We debate colour names and how sometimes Orange is really Deep Yellow.  What really IS Seafoam?

New Socks on the Block

We find & comment on a small handful of recently released/published sock patterns on Ravelry. Yum!!

We are operating without a computer at the moment!  And the Professor’s phone alarm goes off.

• Luminiere: (Maire can’t find this pattern quite yet, so will wait til Morgan finds it & gives her the link)
• Unravelling Ribs by Amy Tyszkiewicz: lovely pattern that travels all over the ankle
• Sherri gets us talking about Kristin Benecken & bavarian knitting
• We have some general discussion about the new Knitty
• Nevermore by YarnYenta (Heatherly Walker): Chart seems confusing, but the socks look beautiful. (Sherri renames Maire’s project as “Goldfinch” instead of “Nevermore”)

Credits:
- Intro clip from “8 BIT Junkie” by George Wood
- Outro clip: “The Table Near The Band” by Power Salad

Things are starting to even out.  My laundry still isn’t done, and the kitchen is still a mess, but those are ongoing projects since one person is generally asleep when the other’s awake around here.

• work situation hasn’t changed.  There was a chance it would.  That isn’t happening.  Now that this isn’t in limbo, I can concentrate on grousing that I’m the only person into the office first thing in the AM.
• got in some quality knitting time this week.  Knitting always helps even out the moods.
• our housing situation is still up in the air, but looking a lot more favourable and a lot less bleak.  This makes me happier.
• spent much less time on warcrack.  I actually *can* walk away from the game when it starts pissing me off. I actually rolled a wee mage on an Alliance server that a friend is playing on, just to noodle around.  I generally get bored with Alliance and ditch.   We’ll see if I continue the trend. So far for lvl 70 toons, Horde is winning, 2-0
• down about 6 lbs this week.  Blood sugar is somewhat stabilizing.

I slipped.  Really badly.  I meant to get back on plan, get my life in order…and what happens?  Well, my kitchen is a mess, the clean laundry is still waiting to be put away, the dirty laundry is piling up, and my weight has ballooned.  Significantly.

I’d meant to follow strict Low Carb for 2 weeks before my birthday, right?  That didn’t work so well.  Then, right after my birthday, when I was trying to get everything back in order…my parents gave me my birthday gift.  A baked cheesecake.  A FULL baked cheesecake.  While I love the fact that Mum remembered…it was exactly the wrong trigger.  Cue another week of poor eating habits.

Combine that with Warcrack…I’d planned on making a nice, LC chicken stirfry on Saturday afternoon before Raid.  Um…yeah.  Couldn’t get that done in between two heroic instances and THEN the raid. Also disturbing is my tendency to snack on chocolate candies during raids.  Yet another bad habit to kill.

So this week I have to get this crap figured out and fixed.  I’ve made a stab in the right direction by ordering an Atkins-induction-friendly cookbook online, and it should hopefully arrive soon.

Other than that…I can still make my stir-fry for dinner, and hopefully I can get some planning done on a week’s worth of groceries, lunches and dinners.  This needs to get done, ASAP.  I feel like crap, and it’s pretty obvious why.  In the past month, I’ve felt queasy, and my headaches have been recurring.   I’ve also gained a LOT of weight back, really quickly.  The good news is that weight gained quickly should also go away fairly quickly, with little damage.  It still doesn’t make me feel good, though.

So yeah.  Sad panda.  Gotta get this under control.

In happier news, my Noro striped scarf is looking pretty.  Pictures to come once it’s done.  Yes…a scarf.  Sometimes a girl needs a break from socks…

Sock #1 of the Baudelaires are almost done.  For some reason, even though I have the pattern pretty much memorized, actually doing the work is kicking my arse.  Of course, I probably would be done with Sock #1 if it weren’t for the fact that we’ve been frantically cleaning the house.

Some of the folks who read this might be wondering…is this a day-to-day blog, a knitting blog, a diet blog, or what?!  The answer is…a bit of all of the above.  I’ve tried to keep things separate…and it’s a pain in the keister.  Basically, whatever goes through my brain will eventually make it here in some way, shape or form.  I kinda like that.  Makes things more organic.

(more…)

- The house is getting cleaned.  A surface clean done by next weekend, and a deep clean as we go forwards.  Goodwill is gonna love me.

- The weight…is going DOWN.  Bye bye sugar.  My tastebuds will miss you, but my thighs will not.  Sorry, GI Diet, but grains and I really don’t agree.  I love them and they hate me.  Hello low-carb once more (Low-Carb treats me much better,  anyhow.  Particularly at this time of year when my headaches go crazy).

- Socks will be knit.  Many socks will be knit.  I will be going crazy, so there will be much in the way of sock knitting.

- One more toon will be going to 70.  Eventually.  That’s the one thing I’m willing to relax on a bit.  It’s not crucial.

The Regia Cotton disaster has gone back to the frog pond. I ripped one all the way back & tried to recast on my size 0 needles…and it just doesn’t look right. The stitches are too small, and it makes it hard to work with. I may recast on with the size 1 needles, but do a very plain top-down sock. Maybe a top-down Jaywalker…but for now I need a break from it.

Hence…Baudelaire. One of the KALs (knitalongs for you non-knitters) I participate in on Ravelry has a theme this month of either an intarsia sock or a sock by Cookie A. Or you can do the Mystery Sockalong, which also uses intarsia. Since I’m not really one for intarsia, I’ve gone with a Cookie A. pattern.

My secret pal gave me the Gothic Spiral sock pattern, but I found that I didn’t have quite enough of the Louet Gems that I wanted to have. I’ve been wanting to play with Baudelaire for quite awhile, and it looks as though it’s now my chance. Again, like the toe-up Jaywalker, it’s a toe-up, heel-flap pattern. I just hope that I get the measurement right on the foot length. So far, the pattern itself is very pretty! I’m looking forward to seeing these ones finished.

(more…)

You never know just how addicted you are to a routine until it’s gone.  Seriously.  I forgot my knitting at home one day this week, and it just about drove me nuts.  All of a sudden, I had a lunch hour with (gasp!) no knitting.  I tried to find ways to get to the Michael’s down the street, just so I could pick up just ONE ball of yarn and set of needles.

Instead, I plugged in my iPod (which I usually listen to while knitting at lunch) and found a few unfinished crosswords.  Sad.  Very sad.  Remind me never to forget my knitting at home again, ‘kay?

I’m now on “vacation”, so will be home for the next couple of weeks.  This means that I can play housewife over the Yule season.  I think I’ll be spending the bulk of the next couple of days on knitting.  Plans for this evening include cleaning the living room, putting up the tree, and likely decorating it.  Yay!

X-mas shopping is pretty much done.  It’s done for family members, at least.  This makes me a very happy lady.

Watching this show on BBC Canada.  The premise is a sound one.  We have LOST the art of homemaking and entertaining.  Laurie of Crazy Aunt Purl  has been updating her home and doing quite a bit of cleaning.  Actually, she seems to be doing what could be called “Martha Lite”, but is just plain common sense cleaning & organizing.  Cleaning & Organizing shows are all over the TV and the web…but it really comes down to the following questions:

1. Do you display common sense?
2. Is your house too large/small for the stuff you have packed into it?

Really, that’s what it comes down to.  Watching this TV show, I’m seeing a couple of “hopeless housewives” (I wish I had the kind of income it takes to make a career of being a homemaker) being coached on how to, frankly, be good little post-WW2 housewives.  While I don’t agree with all your linens needing to be white to make a good impression, I could understand that in your guest room.  You want your guests to be sure that you know how to take care of a home (and therefore them)?  White linens.  UNSTAINED white linens.  With a high thread count, thankyouverymuch.

You aren’t going to find that in my home, I’m afraid.  I don’t have that kind of cash.

But some of the tips and advice are useful.  I have to admit that even I winced when I saw the hopeless ones putting together cocktail party fare, and just sticking all the hors d’oeuvres on paper and styrofoam plates.  Eeek!

Someday I will have a few lovely display pieces that I can put hors d’oeuvres onto.  Of course, there’s a huge difference between the kind of casual dinner parties that we have, and a standard “cocktail party”.  A REAL live cocktail party means that your friends aren’t allowed anywhere near your kitchen…and we have enough maritimers in our circle of friends that this is practically impossible.

So yeah.  I’m enjoying the show.  And it’s reminded me that we have been remiss in getting our own home organizing projects done.  Definitely need to finish the rec room, then probably start on the living room or my studio…

In knittery-news, I’ve turned the heel & completed the gusset on the Pembrokeshire Pathways, and will hopefully have those done this weekend.  If I can do a full pair of socks in about a week?  Sweetness

I keep forgetting that furniture is three-dimensional.  In the context that you can do more than just use it as intended.

Robin and I are currently working through a mutual frustration with our furniture, our storage, and our decorating style.  Right now it’s a mixture of hand-me-downs, junk, and assorted odds & ends that we’ve either picked up on the fly as needed, or brought into the house on our own.

We’re working on getting rid of the junk & clutter, but it’s taking some time.  In the meantime, I’m looking at different options for how to decorate with storage possibilities.

Everyone loves IKEA, right?  Well…IKEA is good for certain things.  Cheap, modernistic furniture?  Yeah.  Might not be at a cheap price, per se, but definitely not as expensive as many high-end shops.

At any rate…There are folks who don’t necessarily use IKEA as “intended”.  Okay, okay, yeah, walking through IKEA shows you that IKEA doesn’t even use their furniture as intended…but painting it, using it as a balcony hardwood floor, or turning it on its side & attaching legs?  Oh yeah.  Bookshelves are now sideboards, and a TV shelf plus a platform turns into a Captain’s Bed.

Head on over to IKEA Hacker or IKEAFANS and boggle

Obligatory knitting content: Hedera are cast off & grafted.  Whee, pretty!  Now there’s a pair of Monkeys on the go, in a vibrant pink Tofutsies sock yarn.  Yeee!  Cute! How many more exclamation points can I use??!!!!111 

Busy week so far, what with cutting down plants, trying to clean the house, getting better after being sick, and having a spouse with a cold and a twisted ankle. We’re making inroads on trying to get the wasp nest dealt with (yes, it’s a wasp nest. Those are definitely not bumbles), and then we’re going to start on our longer-term plan of decluttering & making the space more ours.

In the meantime, the Hedera socks are off the needles. Both toes have been grafted, and the socks are looking faboo. Pictures soon (need a cleaner place in which to shoot pictures, truth be told. My current environment sucks for that. You don’t need to see my laundry!)

Trying to decide which pattern to do next. I could very happily truck away on some Jaywalkers, or Baudelaire, or Pomatomus…