Noolie Knits

Ready for Round 3 (sort of)

The pattern is due out anytime now, between 7am and noon today. I've got the supplies. Yarn: Scout's Soctoberfest sock yarn, Needles: Crystal Palace size 1.5 dpn's.  Now, I just need the pattern and some time to knit.  I'm working until 4:30 today, taking my neice to driver's ed at 5:30, and teaching a crochet class from 6 to 8.  It's not looking too good for me this round.  Not only am I not able to cast on until tonight, but my opponent can whip out a pair of socks in all of about 2 minutes (well, maybe not that fast, but she is FAST!).

I finished the first of the Lorna's Laces socks this morning before work.

That's Ruby wondering why a sock suddenly appeared on her pillow.

Well, that's all I have time for right now; have to go to the dentist - YUCK!
Have a great day!

Chicks with Sticks meet the Manchvegas Knitters

What a fun day I had yesterday!  Gina's Manchvegas Knitters group came to York to have lunch and spend the day knitting with the Chicks with Sticks at The Yarn Sellar.  We ate at the Chinese restaurant, Greenleaves, next door to the yarn shop.  Luckily (for the other patrons) we were located in the bar area by ourselves.  Quiet is not exactly how this group would be described :)  Once we were done eating some very good food, we went back to the Yarn Sellar where we spent the entire afternoon knitting and yakking and laughing.  There was A LOT of laughing. 

Sitting from left to right: Lauren, Gaye, Ericka, Gina, Me, Melissa, Amanda, Chris (Amanda's hubby), Chris (Ericka's fiance), Heather, Mary. Standing from left to right: Patti, Lisa, Jackie, Lora

Thank you Roger, for being our photographer. 

He stood on that stool and took the group picture with 5 or 6 different cameras.  What a good Doobie!

 

Gina fondles yarn (pink, of course).

Gina gives Roger a neck massage

A great big thank you to Patti and Roger for hosting this get together!

I finally finished my Round 2 socks for Sock Madness.

I started these on Thursday around 5:30pm and knit almost the entire first leg Thursday night. I stopped to take a look at the Flickr site where some closeup pictures were posted, then took another look at the pattern and realized I had done the leg WRONG! I had to rip back to cuff.  Friday on the way to my meeting in Augusta I managed to get back to where I was before ripping.  I finished the socks this morning around 11 while at work at the gym and had to wait an hour to go home and upload the picture.  I didn't see my opponent's socks, but I could have missed them, so I won't know for sure if I've made it to Round 3 until there is an official post on the Sock Madness blog.

I didn't do much knitting at all this afternoon; just a few rounds on Betty's hat. I spent some time trying to catch up on blog reading; it's hard to keep up with the blogs when your in the heat of a knitting battle!

Tune in tomorrow when I tell you why it's a miracle that I have any hair at all left on my head!

LET THE MADNESS BEGIN, again

I'm ready! I have my supplies:

 
Spunky Eclectic's "Maine" yarn in the Vineyard colorway and Crystal Palace size 2 dpn's.  You may recognize that colorway from the Big Balls Sweater.  I will have no excuse to be wearing socks that clash with it anymore!

The pattern for round 2 of Sock Madness is due out today between 4pm and 10pm. I'm hoping it comes out on the early side of that so I can get going on them this evening. I'm not sure how well I will fare during this round. Tomorrow I'll be in Augusta all day at a meeting. This is not a meeting during which I can knit; we'll be discussing some property tax law changes that need a lot of clearing up. It's kind of important that I pay attention and take notes, as it directly affects how I do my job. Poo, I hate meetings where I have to pay attention! I should be able to get some knitting done in the car though; I'm driving up with a co-worker and I told him I'll pick him up, but he has to drive the car because I HAVE KNITTING TO DO! It takes about 1 3/4 hours to get there, so I should be able to accomplish a bit.

Then on Saturday, Gina's knitting group, The Manchvegas Knitters, are coming to town to have lunch and knit with The Chicks with Sticks. YAY! It's going to be so much fun. I just hope that the sock pattern isn't too terribly complicated so that I can work on it while chatting and laughing and carrying on.

During the first round, we were knitting against all the other knitters in our bracket; this time it's one on one!

Wish me luck!

How Dumb am I?

Alternate title:  I Should Be Wearing My Big Balls!

After completing the Mad Cow Socks for Sock Madness last night; I decide to tackle the zipper for my Big Ball Sweater.  I had purchased a zipper on Friday and found the perfect color thread to match the sweater.  I figured I'd get it all basted in and complete the sewing this morning.  I very carefully basted the fronts of the sweater together with some contrasting color yarn to make sure the edges stayed even.  I then turned the sweater inside out and pinned the zipper to the sweater.  Checked it to make sure it was nice and even and flat.  Perfect.  It was also a perfect fit; I wasn't so sure it would be.  Okay, time to baste the zipper in place.  I threaded the needle and ever so carefully whipstitched the first side in place - good.  Rethread the needle, whipstich the second side - perfect.  Turn the sweater right side out to see how it looks; looks good.  Damn, I'm proud of myself.  Now it's time to unzip the zipper and really sew both sides in.  Zip.... hmmm, what's up with this?  Can you guess what I did?  I bought the wrong kind of friggin zipper!  I was so concerned with finding the right size and color that I didn't even notice that it was a zipper that doesn't open completely; you know, the kind that stays shut at the bottom!  Stupid, stupid, stupid!  I really wanted to wear that sweater tonight to Chicks with Sticks!  Guess where I'm going at lunchtime.  That's right; the fabric store, where I'll pay attention to the zipper I buy this time.

The good news - I'm not afraid to put in a zipper anymore :-)

*I just checked and I did indeed make it to the second round of Sock Madness!  This means more madness to come. 

Did I Make It?

I won't know for sure until tomorrow morning; but I think I may have finished my socks in time to move to the next round of Sock Madness! 

Pattern: Mad Cow Socks by Jennifer Booker Young (for Sock Madness competition)

Yarn:

Brown-Fortissima Socka

Multi-Spunky Eclectic's Skinny Socks 

Needles: Crystal Palace size 1.5

Started Saturday, 3/10

Finished Monday, 3/12

This pair of socks counts not only for Sock Madness, but also as my March socks for the SAM3.

Madness

Sock Madness began yesterday morning.  I printed my pattern, and after making a quick trip to go tan, I sat down and got to work.  I made some pretty good progress, getting past the heel (my first short row heel) and got a repeat or two of the foot done before feeling like I need to lay down for a quick nap.  It was 4:00 and I thought I'd sleep for an hour or so; I woke up at 7:30!  Lost quite a bit of time there.  I checked the Flickr site and saw that a couple people had already completed their pair!  Holy Cow, Batman; how can I compete with that?  I plugged away for a while after eating dinner and stopped to go to bed before beginning the toe.  I had to get up this morning to work at the gym; normally I get up at 4:30, so with the time change, it was like getting up at 3:30!  While at work at the gym, I finished the first sock and started the ribbing on the second one.  I just can't seem to get moving on the second sock like I did the first one.  Here's what I've finished so far:

As you can see, I haven't done much on the second sock. Even though the competition is called Sock Madness, I don't think we are supposed to drive ourselves completely mad to get the socks done; so I decided to take another break and post here and then I'm going to read some blogs and eat dinner before starting back in on this second sock. I can't be the only one who needs a break, can I? Hopefully, there will be enough other people who needed to take a break that I won't be eliminated.

Friday morning I finished the knitting on the Big Ball sweater and soaked it and put it on the blocking board Friday night. I think I'm in love. I can't wait to wear it, but first I need to put in the zipper. Yes, I decided to go for it and put in a zipper. Hopefully, I won't ruin the sweater. Here's a picture of it still sitting on the board. It's not the best picture, but there really isn't very good light in the room where I keep the board (away from curious kitty cats). The picture in my last post shows the colors better.

This was a really quick knit and I think I see another one in my future. The pattern is Amy's Everyday Chunky Cardi; yarn is her Chunky Big Ball Sweater Yarn.

Samm's been busy lately, too. Last weekend while Chris and I were in Boston, she was busy taking out her dreadlocks. Actually, she started taking them out the previous Wednesday and finished on Saturday night. She called me in Boston Sunday morning to tell me she had finisihed. She went to have it styled Sunday afternoon. I was so anxious to get home Monday to see just how short she had to have it cut. I was really surprised when I saw her; it's no where near as short as I expected. Here are a couple pictures; you can't really see the style very well because the kittys are blocking it, but you can see how healthy it looks!
Samm and Moogie
Samm and Rico (doesn't he look dapper in his shirt?)

That's not all she's been up to; she made another watch. This one for my sister, her favorite aunt :) Isn't it pretty. She does really nice work.

Well, my brain is kind of fried, so I'm going to end here and go get something together for dinner. Then it's back to more sock madness!