good lord.

Yeah. When I said I was busy, I wasn't kidding. But hey, now my summer of madness is over, and though I may be unemployed again, I have time to breathe. It's a fair trade, I think. For a while. I don't see why my life has to be either unemployment or jobs that need you to work 18-hour days. Clearly I need a new profession.

Anyway, I did knit a bunch of stuff towards the end there, when I was actually in a show and had a lot of time to knit while sitting around at rehearsal. Let me see if I can dredge up a photo or two . . .

Here we go! I did another Square Circle Hat, but this one with sock yarn--the yarn I won in our Puck This! hockey playoff pool on Ravelry. It's almost hockey season again, you guys! I will soon be able to wear my prize hat while watching games.



And I made a pair of basic ol' socks. Love the stripes. Thanks, Lolly!





I'm also making a pair of half-finger gloves with the rest of the stripey sock yarn, and then last night I knit up a slipper, totally on a whim. It's the sort that needs to be felted, so perhaps I will knit the other one today and felt them tomorrow, and see what happens. I'm curious to see if a felted slipper will actually be a useful item, and if it is, LOOK OUT. Those things knit up so fast that I will probably end up with a pair of slippers for every day of the week.

I have been SO BUSY!

Ok. I'm still alive! My summer job has been wildly busy, and there has not really been a whole lot of time for knitting or blogging. Here are the few scraps I've done.

First up, the Big Green Blob!



It's going to be a tunic-y sort of pullover. I hope it fits. I get cold in the air conditioning. The miles and miles of stockinette are totally boring, but perfect to knit while you are babysitting the sound guy to make sure he gets all the cues right.

Second we have the Super Cute Winter Mitts, which are my mom's birthday gift. She's visiting me this weekend, and I just have to wait for them to dry before I give them to her. I kind of adore these mitts. I will be making a pair for myself, and possibly for a friend.





Maybe I'll do a link to the pattern when I finish my mitts? No time now! I have to go learn to sing Memory from Cats. WTF?

this is a little awkward.

I'm heading off to my summer job tomorrow, so I started an easy stockinette cardigan thing that will a) be handy plane knitting, and b) be useful once it's finished. Yay, right?

You'd think so, until I busted out my carry-on bag and saw this:



Yep, that's right. My cardigan is the same color as my carry-on bag. I am overly coordinated. Lest you think I have some mad passion for salmon or coral or whatever this color is, I'll have you know that both the bag and the yarn were gifts. I like both of them very much, true, but . . . oh dear. I'm going to feel a bit silly sitting in the airport tomorrow.

here's how clever I am.

I made yet another snazzy potholder for a bridal shower. The bridal shower was yesterday. I didn't take any pictures of the snazzy potholder because I was in a bit of a rush, of course, and I was all, "Oh, no worries, I'll just take a picture of it when the bride-to-be holds it up!" And of course, you know how they play that game where they set a timer and whoever's gift is being opened when the timer goes off gets a prize? Of course the timer goes off when my gift was being opened, and I was so distracted by the glory of winning that I forgot to take a picture.

:(

Oh well. I am now the proud owner of a very pink, very flowered stainless steel water bottle. And the bride-to-be liked her potholder. Even if I don't have photographic evidence.

glorious sock!

Yesterday afternoon I popped on my half-finished sock and flailed my foot around in the window until I could get some nice pictures. I hope no one across the street was watching. Or maybe I hope they were watching, because it would have been pretty funny, and who can't use a good laugh? (There was one crisis moment when the needles got caught in the lace curtain. I was starting to feel like I was in a Ben Stiller movie.) Anyway, the sock:



Isn't it glorious? Like I said, red AND orange AND yellow AND pink. So awesome. The yarn is Woolarina Handpainted fingering weight, and it is in my hot little hands because Lolly is awesome.

The pattern is Leyburn Socks, a pattern I'd had my eye on for a while as a good way to keep variegated yarn from getting all pooly and wacky. It's pretty fun, with the wee lattice stitch and all. I think the cuff may end up being a little large, but I think I'm going to leave it, since I don't feel like doing the math to take out ten or so stitches.

I Hemmed It!

Yay! The guideline worked! Totally thrilled. The guideline was so handy I could even hem this sucker in the car. Which I did on Wednesday. :)

Now to block it, try it on, and see what the heck kind of closure I should put on it. I have two different sets of grey buttons which would look nice, should I decide to go the button-band route. (Or I could go buttons-and-loops.) I am also contemplating a belt route. Too many choices! Too many, I say.

For my other road-trip amusement, I started on an incredibly, gloriously loud sock. Colors to burn the eyeballs, y'all, and I couldn't love them more. I have no idea how it'll photograph, but I'll get to it eventually. Just know that there is orange AND red AND yellow AND pink. So awesome.

I'm also freaking out a bit about my mother's birthday. I can't think of anything to knit her, because she has TONS OF KNITWEAR, and it's all my fault. I guess I could make her another sweater, but I don't really feel like knitting a sweater in the summer in Texas. And if I DON'T knit her something, then I am shit out of luck for birthday gift ideas. Maybe I could record a song for her? Argh, I don't know. I've still got two months, and I can totally get something epic done in two months, if I have to, but I need to decide SOON.

of hemming.

I've been trying to hem my recycled cardigan for a couple of days now. The sleeves look ok now. I had a couple of do-overs because of overly tight bind-offs, but they're ok. The hem hem, the bottom, is a real pain in my rear. I don't want it to be squiggly, but measuring doesn't seem to work, and I'm not particularly good at keeping my stitches in the same line of purl bumps . . . this afternoon I tried basting in a guideline thread, but I'm pretty sure that it hasn't stayed between the proper rows of purl bumps.

Ugh. If the guideline doesn't work, I'm just going to block it, in hopes that it'll even out the purl lines, and sew it up from there. Hopefully.

I really want to wear this sweater! It's very plain but very flattering. (And no, I still have no idea if I should put buttons or what on it. I'm so indecisive.)