Oops!

I can't believe I haven't posted about my first Sockret Pal package yet! Geesh, and I've had it for a week, too. I'm very excited to say that I received the incredibly awesome sock book by Nancy Bush, Knitting on the Road!! I'm a huge fan of hers, and I've been gawking at everyone else's Conwy socks for ages, so I'm really excited! There was also some lovely stationery & a cute little bitty pen...thanks so much, Sockret Pal!! And, I'm sorry I didn't post earlier...I feel awful, because I know how frustrating it can be, waiting for your downstream to confirm that it got there. I live in fear of my little packages getting eaten in the mail, never to be seen again, and I get antsy waiting for confirmation of their arrival. The brain has been somewhat consumed lately by thoughts of the holiday knitting...and concerns over Second Sleeve Syndrome. I hope to finish the alpaca sweater within the next week or two, but that still leaves about a half dozen smaller projects to finish...oy!

Happy Blogiversary to me!

Yup, one year ago today, I created this weird little space. I imagine it was probably just as grey & rainy then as it is now, being November & all. Big thanks are due here to Kathy, who I leaned on a lot when I started, and who pestered the heck outta me to start a blog in the first place. I don't often make sense here, and I rarely write well, but it really is a nice little place to vent & keep track of my geek progress. And speaking of geek progress...

The alpaca sweater for my Ma is looking pretty good thus far. It's nearly to the bind-off in this picture. I worked a seed stitch hem at the bottom there for about an inch or so, and picked up the stitches on one of the sleeves last night. The sleeves will have a seed stitch cuff as well, though I still have no idea how I'm gonna do the collar. The braided cable, btw, is the River Run pattern from Vogue Stitchionary #2, and really pretty, in my opinion. Also on the needles these days...This here is the beginning of the first of a pair of Fuzzy Feets, also for my Ma. I'm using Forest Heather Wool of the Andes, and lemme tell ya, it's weird making socks this huge & loose. Furthermore, there's... The first of a series of four Christmas stockings. Well, five, really, if you count the little one I'm going to make for the cat. Yes, I'm knitting a stocking for the cat. I am a Crazy Cat Lady, and I wear the badge with pride. These are done in Reynolds Lopi, Fire Tweed & Spruce Tweed, and I really like the way they're turning out. So does my sweetie, who picked the pattern and the yarn, which is pretty darn impressive for him. My only complaint is I'm unsure about how to join the new yarns (can't I just spit-splice 'em? or would it make the colour jogs weird?), so it's stalled out in favor of the alpaca sweater lately. That brings me to the one & only project that's not intended for someone else...My much adored, and badly photographed, Sierra socks (Mountain Colours Bearfoot...yum). These socks are moving at the speed of frozen molasses, unfortunately, as the Christmas knitting does take precedence. They are the most beautiful socks I've ever made, though, and will be well worth the wait, I'm sure. I really wish y'all could see the colours...my camera isn't the best, nor am I all that hot at knowing how to make it better, so you'll just have to believe me. It's a gorgeous deep red, with small shots of olive green & gold & maroon...soooo autumnal, and soooooooooo pretty! Also pictured in my Photo of Pretty, a really kickass notebook given to me by the lovely (and generous!) Kathy! I'm sort of weird about blank books like this, and I admired this one in Borders the other day. It's a gorgeous metallic green, with deep red accents, and a little leather magnetic clasp. I loff it. Anyway, Kathy took pity on my drooling, and presented it to me as an early Christmas present. How cool is that? It's keeping track of knitting & Christmas lists right now. Even Stripes approves of the sweater. Y'know, it's interesting to think of how far I've come in the last year, since starting this silly blog...I didn't know how to knit at all a year ago, and now I'm working on this gorgeous cabled sweater...kinda neato, eh? Oh, and while I'm back on the topic of the sweater, let me voice my fears about it...it's absolutely gorgeous, and I'm really proud & everything, BUT. I tried it on after I bound off the bottom hem, and it fits me like a glove. It's beautiful. Problem is, it's not for me, it's for my Ma, who generally speaking, likes things to be a bit looser than I do. Yeah, we're pretty much the same size, and it really fits me beautifully, but she's in her fifties, and I can't remember seeing her wear something so...not loose! It's not tight, but nicely skims the outline of my shape (the shape in question being "lumpy", but that's neither here nor there), and while that works wonderfully for me, I'm not so sure she'll be thrilled with it. I'm kind of honked at myself for not erring on the side of caution more, but in my own defense, I really didn't want a huge tent sweater, either. Fortunately, I think she'll be honest enough to tell me if she'd never wear it, because if that's the case, then I really want it for me! I'd happily make her another one instead after the holidays, but there's no way in hell I'm ripping this thing back all the way to the beginning. I've been working on it since August! (Yes, I am a slow knitter...I have started & finished a whole buncha other projects in that time, though, also.)

As long as I have your attention, I think y'all should go on over to my dear friend Kerrie's blog, and congratulate her on the birth of her SEVENTH baby!! (I shit you not, SEVEN kids!! Personally, I would have croaked years ago, but Kerrie's of strong Irish stock, and a fabulous momma.) And, she deserves huge congrats on the building of her new house! I'm so happy for her that she gets to have so much space now...because honey, I know tiny living areas! Heh.

And that concludes ye olde Blogiversary poste. Yay that I've made it this far, and yay that I can tell y'all about it! Woohoo!

(And yes, I'm a dork. You should have known that by now, don't you think?)

A picture is, indeed, worth a thousand words

But sadly, I haven't any pictures for you today, so you'll just have to sit here & listen to me babble incessantly. More picture-taking to come in the near future, though! I've quite a pile of projects on the needles right now, so I've got lots of pictures to take. Work is progressing nicely on the alpaca sweater for my mom, and even though it's on ungodly tiny needles (size threes, and while that's rather big for socks, it's pretty daunting for a whole freakin sweater) with a gauge of 8st to the inch, I really am enjoying it. The fabric is beautiful, and the cable looks really nice, if I do say so myself. As much as I like the speed & quick satisfaction of chunkier yarns, I'm beginning to think that I may be a fine-gauge sweater convert. Anyhow, I'm about 3/4 of the way done on the body, and then all I'll have to do is the sleeves & pick up & knit a collar, assuming I can finally decide what I want that to look like. I think a large part of the enjoyment factor comes with having started this sweater back in August...if I had allowed myself less time, I'd definitely not be liking it as much.

In other news around the Front, I've gone & done something completely weird, yet cool...I got a job. Seriously. I'm the new knitting instructor at my local Michael's! How cool is that? I'm less than enthused about the whole prevalence of fun fur thing, but whatever, they're paying me for it. My first beginner class starts soon, and while I will be repeating the beginner class regularly, I also want to throw in a few small project classes here & there. Any ideas, using only materials that can be purchased at Michaels (bummer, I know), are really welcome!

Also in the news this week, from the Department of Meow...Tipsy had a seizure of some sort not long ago. A loud noise set it off (the loud noise being me hollering at a kid, now how guilty do I feel??), and she lost all control of her eye movement (nystagmus is what it's called...basically, her eyes moved back & forth very rapidly, and she lost almost all balance completely). This lasted for twelve minutes, and upset me greatly. I mean, I knew she was a "special needs kitty" when I adopted her, her foster parents were very clear on that, but sheesh! That was scary! I did a bunch of research, and was oddly vindicated when she visited the vet the next day & he confirmed my suspicions of peripheral vestibular disease. The bad news is, it's likely caused by a lesion on the right side of her brain. The good news is, the treatment was relatively inexpensive, and has helped tremendously. She gets drops in her ears twice a day, which she hates with the fire of a thousand suns, but her head is on straight now! She's not tilted at all! It's kind of weird to see, really. Anyway, while the seizure was really freaking scary, I'm rather glad it happened, because it made the diagnosis MUCH easier, and she otherwise might have gone untreated for ages. Poor kitty. She is feeling perfectly fine, though, aside from despising her meds, so I'm a happy camper.

Sadly, I managed to miss most of Socktober, though I did get at least one pair of socks finished anyway. I don't have a picture of them, but sooner or later I will. Eventually. Ahem. I finished my Booga Bag, which was sent to the lovely LkManitou (check out her blog...*she* has pics of the booga bag, even though I'm too much of a weenie to remember to take them myself!) for the October Knitted Thing swap. In the same swap, I was lucky enough to receive a superwarm pair of pretty red Fuzzy Feets! Fuzzy Feets of my very own! Mmmm...thank you, Valkyrie!!