I managed to get some more appropriate yarn for the Monekymen variation. It’s knitting up amazingly quickly so far, mainly due to the lovely texture of the yarn. Yowr 
Here we have a preview of the sock-in-progress. Yay, Monkeymen!
Yay! More complete sockage!
Finished these off yesterday afternoon after work. These are so pretty, I could lick ‘em. That is, if they wouldn’t leave some sorta fuzz on my tongue 
Yarn: Scout’s Swag, “Secret”
Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A.
This means that 2 skeins of yarn have left the collective, and as nature abhors a vacuum…I went to the yarn store this afternoon. And that, my friends, is mild fodder for the podcast 
About two weeks ago I made an order from Lime & Violet. It finally came in the mail this past Friday! Squee!
The colours are absolutely wonderful. The pictures don’t actually do them justice. The dark multicolour is called “Sideshow Husband”, and the one with pinks and yellows is “Strawberry Lemonade”. Fitting, no?
I immediately wound the Sideshow Husband and cast on a pair of Jaywalkers. For the Man In My Life, of course. I’m rather surprised at how quick it knits up….and how thick the striping is. It’s wonderful! I’m almost finished Sock #1 (which is good…I just finished Sock #1 of the Pink Tofutsie Monkey Socks, so this is a nice change before casting on Sock #2).
I think I’ve found a way to combat Second Sock Syndrome. Well…aside from using the two socks on either two circs or Magic Loop method. Which, in retrospect, would likely have been smart of me.
(A couple more pics below the cut! That is, if all works out OK…)
We’ve gotten addicted to Katamari Damacy in the past couple of weeks. It’s one heck of a video game….weird language pattern for the main character(s), and the fact you have to “roll up the world” in a ball is really funny.
Yes, I’m a nerd. Sorta. I found a crochet pattern that I’m going to have to buy. It’s the little Prince from Katamari Damacy. Of course, to actually MAKE it, I’m going to have to learn how to crochet, but that’s not the point. The point is that I could make little Prince dolls.
It’s amazing the things we see on the net.
Got a few rounds done on the Monkey sock yesterday, and a few rows on the Persephone scarf. Thinking of writing out the Persephone pattern so that I can take it to work, but I’m not going to stress on it. Still waiting for my order from Lime & Violet to get here. I had picked up two skeins of yarn when Miss V updated the store. I’m hoping that there’s just a little delay from customs, and that it’s not a matter of the postman misdirecting our mail, or a neighbour deciding that they suddenly need wool. I find the misdirection by the postman a more likely event, mainly because the guy’s a lazy arse. We get mail for other folks all the time. Yeesh.
In other news, have been eating mostly properly for the past few days, and it’s making a difference. I’d been gaining and losing the same 5 pounds for the past two months, and it’s been driving me nuts. I guess it could be worse… I could have ballooned back up to my highest weight. At any rate, I’m on the way back down, and I hope to break the barrier that’s sorta sprung up at that 10 pound mark. That is…I seem to hit a glass wall at every 10 pound mark. It keeps me within a certain 10 pound range for a while, then allows me down to the next 10 pound range. Maybe it’s just the way my body adjusts; I don’t rightly know. I just know that the past 2 months have been pretty frustrating.
Of course, eating all that ice-cream to counteract the insane heat wave earlier this month didn’t help (grin).
We’re trying to strike a balance in our eating habits. Cutting a lot of the junk carbs has really helped. I have to admit that the goal of getting rid of the next 30 pounds is exciting. That will put me at the weight I was when I first got to Calgary. Another 10 pounds beyond that, and I’ll be the weight I maintained in college (of course, by “maintained” I mean “kept off by eating Smarties, fried rice, and orange-pineapple juice & walking everywhere because the trolleys moved slower than my own 2 feet!”).
Very exciting stuff. Now time to get ready to go to work (pout)…don’t wanna!!! 
I tell you…the nice part of waking up at 5am for a 7am shift? You get to come home at 3:30pm. The drawback? You have to wake up at 5am. ***THUD*** (sigh)
Right now I’m on a dishcloth knitting kick. Why? Because they’re small enough that I can whip one off in about an hour or two. We’ve been knee-deep in the Rec Room Renovation this week, so I’ve been only been able to do a couple of repeats of the pattern on the leg of my Monkeys during lunch hours at work.
We’ll have to post pictures of the “After” once we’ve got everything done here. I didn’t take any photos of the “Before”, because frankly…the basement was too disgusting for words. To me, at least. We had two full-sized sofas down here, plus a washer/spin dryer, my domed steamer trunk, big L-shaped desk that the both of us used for our gaming space…a bookshelf full of console gaming stuff…you name it, it was crammed in here. Right now, we have one loveseat in here, a lazyboy, two computer workstations, and the TV stuff. The L-shaped desk is still here, waiting to be torn down. I can probably do that on my own, but I’m a little scared to…it’s basically holding itself together through its own weight.
I kid you not.
So while I’m taking time off from cleaning, I sit down and knit a dishcloth. Not necessarily for washing dishes, really, but for slurpie-cup coasters. Cotton makes a great coaster for a slurpee cup. When moisture condensates on the outside & starts to melt…the cotton just soaks it all up. Whee!
So yeah. Not only fun to knit, but also useful down here in the place where I’m knitting.
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
‘kay. So Jaywalker was frogged and reattached to the leftover yarnball (this is why I don’t toss out those remnants, hee!). While skein #1 is recovering from being a Jaywalker, skein #2 is getting knit up as Hedera. Because the women in my family have big honkin’ feet, they’re being knit on size 2 circular Addi Turbos with the Hot Magic-Loop Action.
The Regia, which was making Ugly Monkeys, will instead become Jaywalkers. The chevron pattern will suit the yarn a lot better.
The cuffs of Robin’s socks still need to be finished. I’ll probably work on that on the 2 extra days off I’m taking next week.
After that…well…we’ll see where we go from there.
‘kay. So now I’ve got a decision on my hands. I’ve restarted the Monkey socks on larger needles. However, I’m rethinking the pattern with that particular yarn. I’m also rethinking my jaywalkers with its particular yarn.
You see…the Regia would likely look better as Monkeys, and the Lorna’s Laces would look better as either Monkeys or Hedera. I’m just being honest here.
So. More thinking to be done.
Things I’m thinking of in no particular order:
- Why the hell do I keep hearing Chris Issac’s “Wicked Game” all over the place? Hello, folks, this is NOT a new song!
- I’m thinking of frogging back the Monkey sock (still not finished) and doing them in a size larger needle. That is, if I decide to use that particular yarn for it. I’m still not sure I want to inflict that atrocity on my SiL or my Mum, both of whom have larger feet than I. I mean…I want Mum’s socks to be unique, but tastefully so. Kinda. The colours are kinda the sort of colours that I envision Shawn wearing, but I’m not sure she’d want ‘em either. Tell you what, Shawn…if you’re reading this? Take a look at the picture posted the other day and let me know if you’d be willing to entertain letting that particular colour/pattern of sock into your house. Thanks!
- I played with the Swift last night. Got my Jaywalker yarn prepped for finishing The Second Sock (there is a perverse part of me that is thinking of actually frogging back sock #1 as well, and just doing both from the cuff down because I’ve now figured out the much vaunted Heel Flap). Might actually fix that flashing / pooling issue.
- Also wound the yarn for Robin’s Second Pair of Socks into balls last night. I have a feeling it’s a variegated pattern, which will work well for my purposes. I’m thinking of actually doing an actual pattern. Aren’t I just a smartie? I think I’m addicted to using my swift.
- Rumour has it that Mum & Dad will be delivering some furniture to the house today. With any luck, we’ll get the Rec Room cleaned, and be able to bring The Couch Of Holding to our downstairs. It is THE most comfy couch EVAR. Grown men easily succumb to Napping when around this couch. It is one of the few sofas I know of that will easily accommodate the napping of a man 6′5″ or taller. The sofa is mighty. Worship the sofa.
- I forgotted my headphones at home. I wanted to listen to some Lime & Violet podcastage during my lunch hour (I’m getting caught up. I’m on episode 6. Feh). The iPod is in the car, and the headphones…I THINK they’re in The Basement of Doom at home. Next time I shall have to remember my headphones. Then I wouldn’t be subjected to my workplace playing Chris Issac over and over.
Actually, Monkey is coming very well. I’ve turned the heel on Sock #1 and am close to the point where I have to decrease for the toes. Robin’s socks are presently upstairs in the too-hot living room, and I may go hunting for them soon enough.
I came down to the oh-so-cool basement and turned on the tube (Robin is still snoozing. I can’t seem to wake him up) to find that “X-Weighted” was on. I’d link to it, but since they rebranded the TV station, the blurb(s) about the show on the website really suck. Basically, it’s a show that follows overweight folks for 6 months. They concentrate on one person per week, instead of an ensemble. Calgary is one of the cities that they film in (in fact, one of the girls from work apparently will be on the show). This week’s subject was a 20-something girl who started at 178 lbs, and wanted to lose enough to audition for the Raptor’s dance team.
Okay. I know that everyone has body issues, self-esteem issues, and all sorts of other brain traps…but I’d LOVE to weight 178 lbs! This chick…who wants to lose about 35 to 40 lbs, WILL NOT EAT VEGGIES!!! Then talks about cheating…and gets upset when she doesn’t lose weight.
Um….NO DUH. I’m not going to sugar-coat it. If you want to lose the weight, you have to put in the effort.
I admit it…I’ve gotten lazy in the past few weeks. Partly due to the heat, partly due to ennui. I know what I have to do to combat it, too. I need to find some new recipes for the summer weather, and I need to stop saying “Yes yes yes!” to cola and ice-cream.
I have found, through adjusting my daily diet, that sugar does NOT like me. If Atkins has done one thing for me, it has shown me that I have a HUGE sugar intolerance. The moment I reduce the amount of sugar in my daily diet, I feel great. I sleep better. I don’t get headaches. My skin is soft and pliable, and my eyes and hair are shiny and pretty.
When I go on a sugar-bender? Headaches. Sore knees. Greasy skin. Short-temper. Impatience. Nausea. Crampy-ness. Depression.
Yeah. THAT is how badly I react to sugar. And I’m not just talking about the obvious sugar like regular colas, ice-cream, chocolate, etc. I have to cut out refined flours too, as well as overly-sweet fruits. When I do this…I shine. I’m a happy girl. I need to knock off the “bad behaviour”.
I’m writing this mainly as an affirmation to myself, to remind myself part of the reason why I’m doing what I’m doing. 35 to 40 more pounds and I’ll be back around the weight I was when I moved out here from Toronto (albeit more healthfully). I’m looking forward to that day.
In the meantime, I need to look over the recipe boards on the low carb websites, and get this house clean so I can start dancing again. Time to get serious 
(oh…and if anyone HAS been watching X-Weighted, you may actually notice that they recommend a mainly controlled-carbohydrate approach to diet. This comforts me. Really.)
