Hai U Guyzz!

Hello everyone - remember me? I remember you, I promise! My time has just been eaten up lately by a variety of things.

1) I got a wicked sunburn two weeks ago tomorrow that I am *still* peeling from. Lots of pain. I spent most of my time whining about how much pain I was in.

2) Plurk. It's a micro-blogging site, like Twitter, but it's set up more like a bunch of miniature IM conversations. A lot of the knitting peoples from the LnV Ravelry board are over there now, and there are dancing bananas.

3) Reading Steven Erikson's The Malazan Book of the Fallen series (link is to the first book; I'm on book three, Memories of Ice). Gritty, epic fantasy. Very good - re-reading in anticipation of the 7th(?) book this September.

4) Playing Pokemon Diamond on my DS. I know, it's a sickness, but I *like* it. :D I bought an Action Replay (think: cheating on videogames) expressly for Pokemon. I've caught almost all of the legendaries (missing two, Arceus and Heatran).

5) Work. 'Nuff said.

6) Spending time with my little sisters. They're out of school now, so there will be much quality time (and much swimming, and much Pokemon) :D

Buut, even in light of all of that, I have pictures! I listened to three episodes of Lime and Violet in one sitting (oh how I love work sometimes), and I came away from them with a strange, irrepressible urge to knit a pair of Monkey socks.



As you can see, I've written out the stages of the pattern on index cards, so I can tuck the pattern into my knitting bag and take it places. I've been knitting by the pool (the pic above is on my mother's poolside lounger), knitting at my sister's grad, knitting at the bar . . . you understand. This is where I am now:



I don't like purling back when knitting on DPNs, so the 30 rows of the heel flap are taking me forever, but tomorrow is another day at the pool/my Mom's, and tomorrow night is Knit Night at Fine Grind, so hopefully I'll get the heel turned, and maybe get into the gusset a little.

Oh, by the way, just to let you know, Knit Picks is having a BIG book sale. If I can scrounge up the cash, I'm going to get this, or this, or maybe this. I also want some of their Options fixed circulars, if I'm gonna learn Magic Loop. Must . . . work . . . overtime . . . for . . . yarn money . . .

A few weeks ago I checked a few books out of the local library, most notably Amigurumi: Super Happy Crochet Cute by Elisabeth Doherty. I haven't crocheted anything out of it yet, but the patterns are ADORABLE. There's a knitted crocheted deer that looks like Deery-Lou that I just HAVE to make, along with some of the crocheted fruit, and one of the crocheted Humanoids for a friend of mine (who shall remain nameless in case they read this blog). It seems like a well-written book, but I'll get back to you once I've actually tried to crochet something from it. My crochet skills are fair-to-middling, so I'm no expert by any means. I also checked out Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. The sock patterns look neat, but I have a hard time following the way things are set-up. The Monkey yarn was originally destined for one of the patterns from that book, but I just couldn't follow the pattern. I think I'm going to give it another try, but write out the pattern on my little cards first so I don't have to worry about getting numbers confused. I also took out Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off, as it was the only Yarn Harlot book I hadn't read, and Wrap Style, because I have 450yds of DK weight merino-silk (Malabrigo Silky Wool) that I want to make a wrap or stole out of, but I found the book less than inspiring. There are maybe three things in the whole book I want to knit: Wandering Aran Fields (Norah Gaughan), Twisty Turns (also Norah Gaughan), and Enchante (Leigh Radford), although I would never wear the last one. Mohair sleeves? *shudder* Itch-city.


OH! I finally finished the @#$%^&* Claw Socks! I asked the Viking to take pictures, but he failed, so when I get my camera back (*grumblegrumblelentouttosomeonegrumble*), I'll get him to model them. The Fair Isle socks are on hiatus - mostly because parts of the leg are STILL TOO TIGHT. *angry sigh* I'll finish the one and use it as a stocking or something.

Okay, this is epic. Time to sign off, and go catch up on my Plurks (9 unread as of now), and work on the heel flap of the Monkey sock. Ciao!