Rumours of my Death have been Greatly Exaggerated

. . . hey guys, miss me? I know, it's been forEVER since I posted - I've got a myriad of excuses, all of them perfectly reasonable, but that's not what this blog is about: ostensibly, you come here for knitting content, so it is knitting content you shall receive!

I've finished a lot of things since I last posted, so I'll get right into it here; first, chronologically, was the Red Monkeys I was making for myself - I am officially a top-down convert, I find it much easier for my attention-span to have the sock broken down into smaller sections (the ribbing, the leg, heel flap & turn, gusset, foot, and toe).



I can't for the life of me remember the exact yarn name - Lana Grossa something - but this red colourway is VERY pretty, lots of purplie bits. I'd originally picked it up for an installment in my Inheritance Sockology, which has not been abandoned, I promise you, just needed a break between making a third pair off of the same pattern. My LYS has another skein in the same colourway, but I'm thinking of trying to find a more dragony red elsewhere.

Once I finished my Red Monkeys, I went right into another pair of the same, with one slight difference:



They're HUGE. I went from my normal 2.5mm-2.75mm needles up to 3.5mm, to make them large enough for the Viking's huge-mungous feet, and they fit just fine. :) A note about the yarn - normally, I avoid self-patterning yarn, heck even self-striping, like the plague, but I bought this for the Viking waaay back when I first wanted to try knitting socks, and I figured it was high time I used it. I found a pair of Monkeys done in self-patterning on Ravelry, and they looked neat, so I thought "why not?" and gave it a try. I think they turned out pretty cool, myself.

Oh, and I also picked up an antique sock blocker for pics - it's in two of the pictures above, but here it is in all it's naked glory:



I've had to sand it down a bit on the edges, but it's definitely serving it's purpose.

Once I finished those, I hunkered down on the Woodland Shawl I'd just started last post. Well, it's finished, blocked, and already given to my Mom (who I think has decided to keep it). Voila:



(Yes, I took the picture from to top of the shawl, so the pattern is upside-down. Whoops. :P)

I ran out of yarn two rows from the end, but in the exchange learned the Yarn Harlot's Crocheted Cast Off (detailed in this post), which is GLORIOUS and requires NO EXTRA YARN. I hate wasting yarn, so I try to knit as close to the end of the skein as possible, and am always running out of yarn for the bind off. This is INSANELY useful - thank you to Patti for pointing me in this direction.

I have also been working on my Albatross, the Snapping Turtle Skirt:



I know it doesn't look like much, but I have finished four hexagons in the last month or so (there's one more, the first in the third row, that hadn't been knitted when I took that picture). I've been knitting this skirt for something silly like two years - however, it's supposed to have four rows of hexagons, and I think it might be long enough with three. I'll have to check that WHEN ELF COMES HOME WHICH IS THIS WEEK I'M NOT EXCITED AT ALL, CAN YOU TELL?! :D

After all of this knitting, I had a short crochet-interlude:



Yes, that is a crocheted Cthulu. It's from the book Creepy Cute Crochet, which is ADORABLE - I made it in a night for Viking's friend Ren (go check out her website and art blog - cool stuff!)

So, what am I working on now? I've cast on for a Calorimetry in Patons SWS Natural Plum - it's very soft and pretty, but really freakin' slippery on metal and wood, so even though I cast it on for mindless knitting, it is not. No pictures of that - my father-in-law borrowed my camera. I also made my first attempt at Magic Loop by starting a pair of Jaywalkers from the now-defunct Magknits (pattern available on Ravelry here) in Patons Stretch Sock, colourway Sugar. It's now transferred onto DPNs, as the needle I was using for the ML was AWFUL. I see some Knitpicks fixed circs in my future!



I'm much farther than this now - only 1/2" away from the toe - but I haven't uploaded the newest pictures to Flickr, and I'm posting from work shhhhhhh.

I really want to knit a sweater, but lack the fundage right now (but I get paid this week, so that may change!). I'm thinking either Terra by Jacquelyn Landry, or the Green Gable hoodie (Rav link) from the Fall 2008 Vogue Knitting.

On the knitting-related front, I received 2oz of some VERY pretty roving dyed by Capistrano Fiber Arts and a spindle from my friend KnitWit. I can't wait to try and spin it up (I had a less-than-successful attempt with a homemade spindle and some Clover needle-felting roving a few weeks back), but I need to have a good length of time to sit down and try my hand at it.



Isn't it pretty? Greens and browns and blues - my favourite! In other acquisitions, I went on a sock-yarn-buying-bonanza in the past few weeks. I bought the Patons Stretch Socks, a skein of Cadenza by Estelle in a pretty brown-and-tan colour, and I ordered two skeins of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock, one in Little Bunny Foo Foo (pink, brown, white), and one in Love In Idleness (mostly blues and purples). That broke my yarn diet, which stretched from May 25th to August 13th. I was very proud of myself - and then I fell down. :D The STR should be here this week (it's in Mississauga right now, about an hour and a half away from here, so I have high hopes.

Okay, I've officially been writing this for three hours. I'm pretty sure I've covered everythingI wanted to cover - sorry about the extra-long post, I had to make up for lost time. :D Hopefully I won't leave it so long between posts this time, eh?