SockTart

Now…Robin has often mentioned to me that he feels he should have a hobby (other than WoW, urban poetry, or remarking on my miniscule yarn stash as “oh my god, it’s taking over the house!”)

Well.  I think I’ve found just the thing for him.  After all, earlier today he remarked to me that we should be saving up for a new digital camera that will actually take printable photos (as in: has enough pixels per inch that we can take the flash disc in to Black’s and actually have prints made).

Thing is…the person in the article…uhm…well….yeah.  That’s Robin.  Down to wanting to know if there is acid-lite paper.

I will not point out the fact that his Grandmother scrapbooks, and that we inherited a lovely book stuffed with family photos that was originally supposed to be all about his brother until Grandma realized that maybe Robin and his Significant Other might want a book too, particularly one that shows all the embarassing pictures of his youth that most grandmothers collect (and most young men wish they’d burned as soon as Grandma brought them over to the house to show Mum & Dad).

But yeah.  He has photos, I have some photos…we’d like to have more photos, particularly of our life together.  Scraptarding may just be in our future.

Oh!  Should really mention…The Evil Palace of Yarn Goodness got some shipments in this week…and so I dragged Robin down there today so that I could spend some money on my favourite brand of frivolity.  I came away with 4 skeins of Artyarns Supermerino (two of my own colour choice, two of Robin’s colour choice - the object being 2 pairs of socks) and some really cool Tofutsies in a cherry pink-and-white twist colour.

They’re also now carrying some of the much-needed tools of the knitter’s trade.  I walked away with a swift.  They practically had to pry the ball winder out of my arms.  Robin now claims to have ideas as to what to get me for Yule.

You don’t want to know what I’ve found to be the best substitution for a ball winder.  No.  I’m serious.  You really don’t.

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Originally uploaded by macgrrlx.

Sooo….this is the progress on the Monkey sock.
My goal with this, of course, was to actively try and make the World’s Ugliest Monkeys. According to one of my co-workers, who finds the pattern really pretty….I have failed.

It takes all kinds of nuts to make a snack pack, right?

But I have to admit that I’m pretty happy with how they’re turning out so far. We’ll see if I get around to the second sock anytime soon. The reason I say that? Well…Regia Cotton isn’t the easiest thing to work with. In fact…I will admit it it…I hate working with cotton. Hate it with the passion of a thousand suns. And that’s pretty passionate.

I plan to go by the yarn store today and we’ll see if I can come up with some better yarn.

Oh…and yes, the sock does seem to fit on my foot…but it’s a tight squeeze. I may have to inflict these socks on one of my friends with slightly smaller than size 9.5 feet.

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.)

Just a quick note before getting dressed, making breakfast, and going to work.

Knitting is damn good therapy.  I’m not going to go into details, but I really really needed some quality time with some sock yarn yesterday.  Also being determined to figure out this damned pattern doesn’t hurt.

I just finished repeat #5 of the pattern.  I put a makeshift lifeline in before the first repeat…then wound up not needing it.  I don’t pretend to understand why sometimes I can “get” a pattern and sometimes I can’t…but there you go.

One more repeat, likely at lunch hour, and then I’ll be on the much-vaunted heel-flap.  Having never done one of these before, it will be an adventure.

But yeah.  Monkey is becoming my bitch.

So I cast on my 64 stitches, and after knitting an inch of cuff, tried the pattern for monkey. I got about two rows into the pattern, then muffed up. Couldn’t knit back (of course). Even though the pattern is written for 16 stitch repeats, I wound up with 3 extra stitches on each side (back & front…using magic loop/2 circ methods instead of dpns). Now…math was never my strong point, but for cripes’ sake…why is it that when a pattern calls for k2tog, ssk, and yo, I muff it up?

This is starting to really tick me off. I couldn’t get Hedera working this way, either. The worst part? I had to rip back the whole inch worth of cuff. There goes an evening of work.

Piss me off. Not happy

Y’know…I’d like to do something *other* than plain, toe-up socks without any kind of pattern. Being able to do the same pattern as everyone else would actually be NICE. It seriously irks me that I just can’t seem to follow the herd…even when I try.

I’m going to pout now.

Okay….now some folks may have been reading my blog and thinking that The Other Half, the Man of My Dreams, my Honey, Sweetie and Snugglebunny is a harsh taskmaster to a free-thinking individual.

Only kinda-sorta.  You see, this is part of the reason why I love him so much.  He’s able to pull my head down from the clouds when it starts to drift.  He’s able to curb most of my impulsiveness.  He understands the value of saving for a rainy day, and knows when it’s pouring (even on a bright and sunny day).  He realizes that there are times when he needs to leave me alone to knit, and when I need to be dragged off to a Warcrack raid with 8 or 9 other people (hijinks and merriment ensue).  He knows when I need a glass of wine, and when I’ve had enough.  In short…he’s the perfect mature foil for me when I’m an immature flake.

Now…when you come to realize that there are times when we switch roles and I’m the stern Voice of Reason…the one who gets to veto 7 Impossible Things Per Day…then you’ll understand why we haven’t had children yet.  (why yes, we are an Aquarian and a Gemini…)

Allrighty.  Last night was Night #1 of our new Karazhan group.  For those who are not partaking of the Crack that is World of Warcraft, Karazhan is a 10-man dungeon (aka “instance” or “raid”) that you can only go to if you’ve maxed your character’s level.  Clicky the link if you want to learn more about it.  It is filled with many things to kill, most of which take the effort of you and your 9 buddies.  Last night we managed to kill five bosses and do the Opera House event.

One of the bosses is called “The Shade of Aran”.  The first time someone killed him, Guild Chat was filled with “Aran down!  We killed Aran!  Yay!’

I wanted to know why they were killing a sweater.  And how.  Did they unravel it?  What colour was it? Did they repurpose the yarn?

Right.  Two fandoms clash…WoW and Knitting….hm.  Unfortunately, unlike the Molten Core dungeon, I can’t spend my evening knitting between pulls in Karazhan.  In the 40-man raids, you have more tardlings going AFK…so when this would happen, I’d knit.  I got a good portion of some socks done around Christmas that way!

Anyhow.  We made progress last night.  Much better progress for a “new” run than many established runs have had.  It’s all good

In other news, I have turned the heels on Robin’s socks and have about an inch on the legs.  I find that working both socks at the same time is working well for me.  I’d like to see if I can do the same sort of thing for some of the Way Cool Patterns on the net right now (mainly Cookie A.’s patterns), but we’ll see.  I’m also grooving on all the yarn out there.  Two of the folks on my Ravelry “friend list” are yarnies….they dye and/or sell this yarn.  It is all verrah verrah yummy.  Very Apple Macintosh for the lick-factor.  I may have to save up the sheckles and get permission from He Of The Accountancy Family Background to use my Visa card and make a couple of orders.

Because, y’know, a girl can never have enough sock yarn.  Never.  Despite what he may think…

(I also signed up for secret pal 11.  which will raise some eyebrows around here when I start putting together care packages for a person I’ve never met.  The trick will actually be MAILING the darned things.  I know that I am postally challenged.  I accept this, and am willing to confront the Evil Postperson.  I shall start by anxiously awaiting my pre-ordered copy of The Last Freakin’ Harry Potter Book in a couple of weeks.  The Training is so strenuous ) 

That was Robin’s advice to me this evening, after he got up and moving.  It’s wickedly hot outside, even now that the sun has gone down.  I’m sure the house will start getting chilly somewhere around 5am (isn’t that always the case?) but until then, the upstairs is sweltering.

Who needs AC when you have a finished basement, right?  I parked my butt on the futon and prepared to finish turning the second heel on his socks.  Yes.  You heard right.  The second heel on his socks.  Both are done now.  I managed to get half the first heel done before work this morning, the other half done during lunch break.  I worked on the second heel after work this evening.  Now it’s just a matter of getting the legs and cuffs done.  Yay!

In the meantime, the kitty is sacked out on the end of the futon, and looks so comfy that I may join her.   At very least turn off the lights, turn on a movie (or watch the tube) and veg in the cool.

Stay frosty, folks.  It’s a scorcher o.O

It’s a good thing that the Palace of Yarn Crack is currently renovating.

Because I’ve been having this itch to knit yellow socks for about 2 months. I’d also like to start on one of the pairs of non-toe-up socks that everyone else has been doing and I’ve been too chicken to try (Heel flap? Huh?). So right now the idea of banana-yellow socks in Pomatomus or Hedera or Monkey sounds really cool.

Besides. There’s no guarantee that my local Crackelicious Yarn Haven actually has any banana-yellow in stock. Which would further make me safe from cheating on my husband’s socks.

Yes. Cheating on my husband’s socks. For I am a fickle critter. If not for the Man in my Life, I would have cut my waist-length hair into a bob this past week. He is the one who gives me a reality check (and then goes out and buys me hair doodads so that I can actually do something with the Rat’s Nest).

Many thanks to the man who curbs my impusiveness. If only for the time being.

Smooches!

(and before someone else mentions that there is more than ONE yarn store in Calgary…don’t. Because as I mentioned, I am a fickle critter and will get a wild hair to go there and buy yarn, and then we’re ALL in trouble…)

“Did you wake me up by attacking me with a sock?”

Yeah. I paraphrase. It was something similar. Robin, who seemed very confused, was watching me playing on Ravelry, and it reminded him that somehow, somewhere….a sock played a part of his wakeup process.

Robin works graves. Sometimes he’s awake when I get home from work, sometimes not. I thought he was fairly lucid this evening, and decided to get an idea how much more of the foot I need to do before turning the heel. Approximately 1/2 an inch to an inch. Apparently he wasn’t as awake as I thought.
I’m forcibly keeping myself from digging out the Regia stashed downstairs, and a couple more pairs of needles. If that happens, these socks are never getting finished…and I distinctly remember hearing a sleepy “Yay…I get socks…” as I was leaving the bedroom with the pair presently on the needles. I admit it. I get ADD when I knit. Bad enough that one of my co-workers has decided to prompt me about Robin’s socks when she sees me…I don’t need to try and justify a distinctive lack of Project Monogamy. Particularly with another pair of socks. People can understand wanting to “switch it up” with a quick scarf, or pair of hand warmers…they aren’t quite so forgiving when it comes to a second pair of socks.

Luckily enough, Warcrack has been a little slow the past couple of days, otherwise I’d be feeling bad for not working on my character. Oooh yeah. I could be grinding faction rep, bay-bee! I’ve never been the best at grinding (uh…not as in “bump and…” for those of you not familiar with the term. It basically means working on a particular task for long periods of time, like killing a certain kind of enemy, or working on a quest chain, etc. Thus ends your gamer slang lesson of the day). I’ve been a good little gamer for the past couple of months. For those (admittedly 3 people) who will understand: I now have my Heroic Keys for Keepers of Time and The Sha’tar. Do I deserve a break? Damn skippy!

I still have Thrallmar, Cenarion Expedition, and Lower City rep to grind out.

It’s probably a blessing in disguise that my local YarnSmack Dealer is renovating right now…