Fall Embossed Leaves Socks

I finished 'em! And I love them. Okay, so, these are kind of goofy pictures but of all the ones I took they showed off the socks and pattern the best.



I'm happy with how the contrasting colored toes, heels and cuffs worked out.

My comments on this pattern/project: First off, make sure you cast on loosely!! This is crucial, trust me. I used one size larger needle for this too.

Also, I did fewer rows of the ribbing to shorten that a bit, and I also did one less repeat of the pattern stitch (in the leg) since I was finding them too long for me. This length is perfect.

Specs on this project:

Pattern: Embossed Leaves Socks from Favorite Socks
Needles used: Size 2 DPNs
Yarn: Knit Picks Essential Solid
Color: Pumpkin, Burgundy and Cocoa
Started: 9/12/07
Finished: 3/22/08

I don't have much...

...but I'll share what I've got.

And what I have is a half a sock. Or, in more optimistic terms, three quarters of a pair of socks.



I decided to keep on going with these Fall Embossed Leaves socks, and try and finish them now rather than later. I was debating whether or not to leave them until the fall, but I decided that I can make other fall-colored socks then, and why not finish these now. That way I can move on to some new ones, like my Summer of Love Lace socks from the Rockin' Sock Club last year. I've really been itching to start those.

I really don't know what else to babble about in this post. I've been knitting, as is evidenced above, but not all that much. And I won't get much done tonight because we're about to go watch Lost and I will not knit during that show. There's just too much that can be missed (and still gets missed even if I've got my eyes glued to the TV) for any knitting to happen. So all this makes for a boring knitting blog! ;)

One of these days I will get around to taking a photo of my progress with that Patons SWS Colored Blocks Throw I am making. I've nearly reached the halfway-ish point (I say -ish because I'm almost done with panel two of four but there's still the border, so this still isn't really halfway). But that's going to require pins and a blocking board so that it's even visible, since it's all rolling.

I will leave you with a Moose photo, because, well, I think he's cute.



Oh...the other day, while I was engrossed in knitting my sock, my husband suddenly exclaims, while giggling (he's helpful like that), "string! string!" and pointing at The Moose, who had gotten ahold of the ball of red yarn from my bag (string indeed!) and was munching away on the yarn. Or, as they like to say over at icanhascheezburger.com, "nomnomnom".

I snatched it away and cut off the end. At least that was easier than when he slimes a working piece!

I was just about to hit "publish post" when I was interrupted because I heard growling coming from the dining room...I looked over to see poor Maddie backing away while she growled at Moose, who was advancing towards her. He's such a little brat! I know he just wants to play but she wants none of that! Sometimes we have to carry her past "the shark" as my husband also calls Moose...because Maddie gets up to all the highest places she can find, jumping from high point to high point, while Moose circles around below. heh. Cats.

6 Things Meme

I was tagged by Gypsyknits for a meme! (Sorry it's taken me so long to do this...!)

Here are the rules for this one:

Post the rules on your blog.
Link to the person who tagged you.
List six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
Tag six random people at the end of our blog by linking to their blogs.
Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs.

Okay, here goes:

1. I don't think I will ever dye my hair when I start to go gray. Luckily for me, I only have one gray hair at the moment (that I can find...)

2. I make a very detailed "trip list" for every single trip I go on. It is an Excel spreadsheet, and each time I'm going somewhere overnight, I copy the previous list and updated it as necessary. I include everything on it right down to little details like dental floss! I have specific lists for when we go camping or to the shore or skiing. My husband makes fun of my lists, but hey, who's the one who doesn't forget her pajamas?! ;)

3. When I put on my shoes, if I've been walking around in my socks, I have to wipe my feet on my leg before I can put my shoe on, in case there's something stuck to the bottom of my foot. If I see someone else putting their shoes on without doing this, it bugs me!

4. I have to carry my purse on my right shoulder. It feels very awkward if I carry it on my left.

5. I am a "purse-aholic." I love bags, and purses, and have a closetful of them. This is a good thing though when I'm in need of a knitting bag!

6. I used to have a big white cat named Pamuk. His name was the Turkish word for "cotton." He was my first cat and was my buddy, and I loved him so much. He passed away suddenly a year and a half ago while we were away on vacation, and I was beside myself, so upset. I still miss him.

He was my welcoming committee every day when I came home from work and always snuggled with me on the edge of the bed every morning while I woke up.



He was a huge fluffy white kitty, weighing in around 22 lbs! Here you can kind of tell how big he is...he's sitting next to Maddie (this was a rarity), whom I consider to be a fairly "normal sized" cat at around 12 lbs. He wasn't fat, just big! He had big paws and and a big wide head (better for petting) and was long too.



I love this picture...he was big enough that he'd make the chair recline by itself. (Kindly disregard the icky old brown chair...we finally replaced it.)



These photos are at our old apartment, where the kitties would like to sit by the window.



And please excuse the photo of a bathroom, but this has a funny story to go with it...see, at Christmastime we had to move our papasan chair in order to make room for the Christmas tree. So we stashed it in the guest bathroom tub behind the curtain. Well, this was Pamuk's favorite chair, and one day when we couldn't find him, something made me look here:



He was in there, behind the curtain, in his beloved chair. hee! To me he kind of had a look on his face as if to say, "I can't believe you put my chair in here!"

There you go. I know that wasn't really a "non-important things/habits/quirks" about me, but I wanted to share him with you. I guess you could call the fact that I was crazy about him one of my quirks. :)

So now I'm supposed to tag people...I think I was one of the last to do this meme, so I'm just going to cop out and "tag" anyone who wants to do it! But thanks to Gypsyknits for tagging me. :)

Oh, and I swear this blog will have knitting content again soon!

Micro Maddie

Okay, so, I was in the process of writing up a draft post, and while researching links and such, I came across something too cute to resist. Go check out my sidebar...meet Micro Maddie! You can "adopt" a little "pet" (links to the site are below the micro maddie)...you can choose lots of different ones...and then make your pet any color you want. I chose gray, for our sweet Maddie, who doesn't get much facetime on the blog!

You can mouse over the cat and it'll follow your mouse...hee! Also, click the "more" tab and it'll offer you toys to play with the kitty.

:)

Favorite Aunt-in-law Hats Follow-up

As promised, I'm here to report back on the Favorite Aunt-in-Law hats! On Monday, I received in the mail two lovely handwritten thank-you cards from my husband's aunts to whom I'd sent the hats. They were very appreciative and seemed to really love them...one aunt said that this was the first hat she'd ever had that really fit her! They both really seemed touched, so that pleased me to no end. :)

Funny thing is, neither one of them seemed to pick up on the jokey game side of it! Neither one made any reference to it, although one did say that I am her "favorite niece-in-law"...hee...but I think that was more in response to the "favorite aunt-in-law" note I'd put on the tag. I also don't know whether at this point if either one knows the other got a hat too...that family is close-knit (ha! pun not intended) so I'm sure it's just a matter of time.

Anyway, it was still fun to knit for them and I am glad they liked them so much!

Moose and the socks

Okay, so, I'm kind of stalling here since I have no knitting progress to report. ;) So instead, I shall regale you with Tales of the Moose...



Last night that little cat had me in hysterics. By the time I got home from work, my husband was already there (usually I beat him home). He was kind of grinning and told me that there was "something" on the dining room floor. I immediately thought by his mysterious tone that it might be something yucky like a dead mouse, or, possibly something else that Moose had broken (he's quite the destructive cat these days). Once I asked those two questions and was reassured that it was neither, I ventured into the dining room.

What I found to my amusement was one of my trouser socks that had formerly been hanging on the drying rack upstairs in the guest room. Ha! Turns out Moose is quite a sock thief, we learned last night. So I took the sock back upstairs and hung it back on the drying rack.

Then a little while later, we went out to run a couple of errands, and when we returned, the/a trouser sock was back downstairs, this time on the ottoman in the family room! This of course made me doubt my own sanity...did I put it back upstairs or not? But I was quite certain that I had so I went up to confirm, there was indeed only one the drying rack. huh!

So then later on in the evening, we were watching Lost on Tivo, and suddenly out of the corner of my eye I notice Moose trotting into the room...and he had something in his mouth. I looked closer and discovered it was John's ski sock! (This too had been hanging on the drying rack.) I dissolved into giggles, John paused the show, and just sat there while I laughed at Moose. (I am a giggly sort...can't stop when something sets me off.)

When I finally settled down and could breathe again, we resumed watching our show. But a mere few minutes later, Moose, who had disappeared for a moment, again comes trotting into the room, this time with one of my ski socks hanging out of his mouth! He placed this one next to the first one, near the coffee table. This time I lost it for a good five minutes, giggling at the cat. He'd apparently been raiding the drying rack. heh. He's crazy. John did "praise" him for bringing us these lovely gifts, although he then mock-complained that Moose was disrupting our TV show because I kept laughing and making him pause it at the most suspenseful parts. (Well, you can't pause the Moose, had to pause the show instead!) One of the cutest things about this was how Moose was walking...both times he had the sock with the middle of it in his mouth so it was sort of folded, and even still it was a bit too long so he was walking funny with his front legs sort of swinging out to the sides so he wouldn't trip over his cargo, and he was walking rather quickly too. hee. Too funny. So that's a grand total of FOUR socks he brought downstairs in one evening!
That photo of him above is where he plopped down after bringing us his treasures...I wish I could have gotten a photo of him in action but there was a slim chance of that happening (especially since I wouldn't have been able to hold the camera steady for all my giggling).

Later when I went up to read in bed a bit, I heard noises coming from the guest room...and I knew it was Moose in there, removing more clothes from the drying rack. I went to investigate and found several items on the floor. He does this a lot. Nothing is safe.

Even the mantle in the living room is now someplace he can get to...he's knocked several items off of there (thankfully nothing that I was particularly attached to...my friend calls Moose "God's answer to decluttering", heh). I also frequently use the newel post at the bottom of the stairs to put little things on that need to go upstairs which I don't feel like taking up right then, and which I don't want Moose to get ahold of (you can see the newel post in this picture, the thing the scarf is hanging on) and he's even managed to knock stuff off of there too. Last night I'd put my book up there to take up later, and a little while later I heard a noise and he was on the stairs, looking innocent and the book was on the floor. Crazy cat!!

I'm sure I'll be back soon with some actual knitting content, but I'm still pretty into reading my book, so not a lot of knitting is getting done.

Hopefully you enjoyed my Moose Tale and it didn't come across as a boring cat-related story but that it was at least a little bit as funny as it was last night! :)

Gone skiing

Hiya! So, last week we went away for a little midweek ski trip getaway to Bear Creek. We had a great time! Okay, I'll be honest, the skiing conditions were definitely quite slushy and the very definition of "spring skiing"...but this meant the weather was warm enough that we were able to dress down and not have to bundle up so much. We had a blast!

The resort there was really great. We stayed at the lodge that was right there "on mountain," and it was very nice. It was new and modern and clean (we asked, and they said the part we were in was only 4 years old, and there was an even newer part that was just built at the end of last year). It had three restaurants (one was cafeteria-style, but still very nice, and another was also very casual, but one was a proper restaurant) and indoor and outdoor pools and hot tubs. One thing I really liked was that if you stayed there, you got a big locker in the ground level that you could store your skis and boots in. They gave you a lock and key and you could just leave your ski stuff down there and not have to tote it around. Then the elevators were right there to go up to your room.

Our room had a king size bed, and one of the more current conveniences was that there was an iHome clock radio next to the bed that we could plug our iPod into.



Even the colors and decor were fun...the walls were yellow (near the bathroom sink it was red!) and there were a ton of pillows all over. We had a sitting area, and...



a fireplace! It was a gas one that you just pushed a button and fwump it came on or went off. Toasty warm and cozy.



Even the main lobby area was cozy and cute. The whole place was a sort of rambling collection line of buildings one after the other and there were cozy sitting areas with fireplaces all over the place. Heh...did I mention it was cozy? ;) I can only imagine how much cozier it would be if there were actual snow on the ground...the slopes were all man-made snow and there was none to be found elsewhere. Oh well.

This was the main lobby. You can see out the windows in the background how very foggy it was! We arrived in the fog, and the driving got a little hairy at the end but then suddenly we came over a hill and all the night-skiing lights just lit up the fog and the whole place glowed. It was pretty cool.



Another view of the cozy lobby area:



The first night we were there it rained all night long. So we sort of expected the skiing conditions to be rather slushy...and they were. But it was still a lot of fun. The best part of it was that there was NO ONE THERE. This midweek ski trip was a great idea.

Anyway, Wednesday morning this was the view from our room...you can see the raindrops on the window, but also the blue sky peeking through the clouds. It stopped raining midmorning and then the sun peeked out a few times during the afternoon, and it was a decent day after all.



Thursday was gorgeous though...sunny all day and warm.



Here we are, doing the classic, hold-the-camera-as-far-away-as-you-can-and-take-your-own-picture thing. :)



In the evenings after skiing both days, we went to this hot tub:



It was awesome! We were kind of pooped after a full day on the slopes so we didn't really do any skiing at night, but it was fun to relax in the hot tub and watch the skiers and snowboarders go by. The only downside was that there wasn't an indoor locker room or anything...you just had to take off your pants or whatever you wore over your bathing suit right there and hop in! Brrrrrr!!!! Of course, getting out was even worse...!

Here's a nighttime view of the place.



So...hope you enjoyed my rambling recount of our little ski trip! :)

Now back to the knitting. Believe it or not, this was all the knitting I got done while we were away:



So, the sock moves slowly onward. I still really like the yarn.

And, as promised before, here is the first Fall Embossed Leaves sock complete...I love how it came out! Oh, and I did one less repeat on the pattern so my leg part is shorter. I like how it fits this way.



The attention to detail in the pattern is fun and I like how the decreases in the toe sort of follow the leaves a little:



I haven't started the second sock yet...in fact, I haven't been knitting so much because I have gotten myself sucked into a book...The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. (Yes, I know, I'm a little behind the times...finally getting around to reading this book!) Really good book...I read through half of it Friday night and yesterday, and for me, that's fast. Today we had to do chores (bleh) so I haven't read any more. Anyway, great book. Read it if you haven't yet.

Oh, and one more photo I have to share...when we got home we had two very happy cats...and, well, I think Moose missed us. When I sat down in the chair, he climbed up on my lap and then proceeded to get veryveryclosetome, settling himself on my chest, right up against my chin. Could not have gotten any closer unless he sat on my head. I'm not actually holding him there, he's just that close. hee. :)



Now, sadly, it is time for bed. This daylight savings time switch has me all confused today...it's way later than I think it should be, and there are things I would rather do than go to sleep. But I'll regret it in the morning if I don't!

Pink Flamingo and Random Other Things

Well, the hats are in the mail, winging their way to my favorite "aunts-in-law". (I think I'm going to coin a new term here...I mean, why isn't there a term for anything other than mother- or father-in-law, brother- or sister-in-law? What about cousins and aunts and uncles?)

We had some lovely sunny weather here this weekend and went for a nice long walk in a park near where we live. It was so pleasant. Walked for about an hour. There's a loop path there that's 5 miles around, although we didn't park right on the loop so we just did a half hour out and then turned around. I'm not really sure how far we went, maybe 3 miles? Yesterday was crazy warm (we noticed our tulips are starting to come up!) and today is supposed to be warm too. Which is fine and all but it's only early March, and besides, we're going skiing this week!

Oh, and one more aside...my friend just reminded me of something...did you realize that this weekend is when Daylight Savings Time starts?! Already?! I'm not complaining here, but that sure snuck up on me!

In knitting news, I actually do have progress to report on my Fall Embossed Leaves socks, however I have no photos to share at the moment. I had thought I would leave them be for a while, partly because the fall colors are more fun to knit in the fall, but also because the first time around I knitted an entire sock before I realized that I'd made two rather large errors causing me to rip it back and start over. See, when I did the gusset decreases for the foot, I mis-read the pattern (totally my fault, a real "duh" moment) and didn't decrease enough...but didn't realize this until I started the decreases for the toe. Whoops. Meanwhile, I'd tried the thing on and my cast-on was WAY too tight, so that was the end of that sock.

So, back when I was home sick a couple of weeks ago, I suddenly had the urge to work on a patterny sock, and I got them out. I made some decent progress, and then this weekend I finished sock #1 (which felt like sock #2 since I've done almost the entire thing twice now but with only one sock to show for it). It came out great! Yes, I know this blog is lacking in the photo department at the moment. You'll just have to trust me on this for now. See, I was going to do this Sunday night but truth be told, the movie my husband was watching (during which I was going to not really watch while I uploaded photos and blogged) totally sucked me in. It also had subtitles so no knitting got done. I'm not much of a knit-without-looking person.

ANYway...the sock came out great although I was a little afraid it was going to be too long in the foot for me, since you have to follow the pattern or it won't look right (the toe decreases mimic the leaves in the foot...very clever...but you have to stop at a certain point in the pattern for this to work). But it worked...it's maybe a tad too long but not by much.

I also started a new pair of plain socks...I'd been itching to start some, and I can totally justify having plain socks on the needles because the way I see it is, they're a must-have for travel and such, and I have so much sock yarn in my stash that I really should have some on the needles at all times anyway. So I dug out this Opal in Flamingo.



Here is a very exciting WIP shot of a couple of inches of a sock ;)



So far I like the yarn, although the patterning hasn't really shown itself off yet. I'll get moving on it soon.

I'm curious about other people's sock sizing...see, I have different patterns that I use, depending on the yarn:

- 56 stitches on size 3's for thicker sock yarn (I don't use this often though)
or
- 64 stitches on size 2's for "average" (that's what I'm calling it) sock yarn

But then there are the yarns like Trekking that are thinner still...and to me this Opal seemed a little thinner as well. These I feel are better suited to size 1's so I decided to do 72 sts on size 1's. I had started a pair of socks with Trekking on size 0's with 72 sts, but they ended up being too tight, so next time I'll try 1's. I am hoping that the size 1's with the Opal will do the trick too. We shall see.

What do you guys do? Do you have a system like this to follow depending on the yarn? Just curious.

So, as I mentioned above, we're going skiing this week. Heading up to Bear Creek for a few days and staying at the lodge that's right there on the mountain. I've never been there and am inclined to think that it's going to be more of a hill than a mountain, but should still be fun. I really wanted to go someplace where we could stay "on mountain" and not have to drive to the slopes...it's always a fun atmosphere at such places anyway. Now I'm just hoping the forecasted rain doesn't mess with our plans too much.

Anyway, I might not be blogging for a few days so if I disappear, that's why. Keep your fingers crossed for us that the weather holds and we get some decent skiing in! :)

Knitting-wise, I'm bringing my new Pink Flamingo socks and one other thing...perhaps the Fuchsia Lace Scarf? I need something simple for when there's people-watching or something else going on, but then I need something that'll hold my attention when it's quiet.

So, chat with ya later!