Sock Madness Round 3.  I completed the pair earlier this evening and was the 10th finished in my division out of 12 going through for the round. So, I’ve officially made it further than I did last year. While I’m still going to knit like mad and try in round 4, I’m pretty sure I won’t make it through to 5 and beyond. I mean, I can be fast but there are some insanely fast knitters playing along.

Slippin’ Stripin’ Socks - Sock Madness Round 3

Knitpicks Shadow (laceweight!) held double, in colorways Jewel and Oregon Coast.

Once I was back in the realm of the living (after grafting that second toe), I went through email and one of the winner’s I’d drawn, Holly, already had a copy of my pattern. So, I’m still going to send her a little something, but I drew a replacement winner as well. Congrats Jen!

What a crazy week.

First off, thanks again for all the lovely comments on the blogiversary post! I had so much fun discovering a ton of new-to-me blogs and making some new Ravelry friends as well. I closed the comments shortly after midnight last night and copied everything over to a spreadsheet so I’d have numbers to feed into the number generator. It selected Holly and Rachel as the knitter winners and Dave as the coaster winner. Check your emails folks.

Speaking of last night, a certain YarnHarlot was in the general vicinity, and my friend Rachel and I headed out to Ann Arbor after work to hang out with all the knitters. Her talk was fun and funny and fabulous, just as it was the last time I saw her. I didn’t spot as many of the local knitters that I recognize as I thought I would, but we had fun anyway. (We’ll pretend that that isn’t a blurry dark photo with the camera still in macro mode and the flash turned off, ok? I was star struck, who thinks to check the camera settings?)

I was knitting away frantically on sock 1 for Round 3 of Sock Madness the whole evening and we sat at the end of the row and talked to just about everyone as they passed by until the end of the book line caught up to us. I was just finishing up the toe, and actually kitchnered it closed shortly after while we waited for dinner. I’m working frantically on sock #2 today, hoping to get the pair done and submitted tonight and maybe make it through to round 4.  More info on the socks when the pair is done. Must get back to frantic knitting right now.

Thank you for the wonderful response to the blogiversary post! It’s amazing how a few little links and a teeny bit of shameless self promotion can spawn so many great commenters to come out of the woodwork. It’s by far the most response I’ve had to any one post on the blog to date. There are still a couple weeks to post (I set my drawing date the day after the Harlot is in Ann Arbor not thinking to look at the calendar and realize that that is still another two weeks out, but it’ll give some stragglers a chance to pop over and discover it in the mean time.) I’ve found some great new blogs to read through those comments too.

I haven’t really knit much since I finished up my hat. I signed up for the wee tiny sock swap on YarnMiracle’s blog and have been picking at a teeny sock, and I may pick up another project to pick at here and there in the mean time while we wait for the next round of Sock Madness to start.

Speaking of sock madness, specs for round two were posted today. STR, US1 needles. I used STR the last round for my zombies, but they didn’t specify varigated vs semi-solid this time, so I’m leaning towards using either the Fairgrounds colorway or the Knitty colorway. I’ll have a few more days to sort that out though, it looks like the pattern won’t drop in our inboxes until sometime on April 1st.

Instead of knitting, I’ve been working on getting the apartment back to some level of almost-orderly, and I’ve been experimenting with some advertising stuff behind the scenes on the blog. The site I signed on with seems to draw a lot of webcomics, but there are a handful of crafty advertisers poking around there and it makes me smile a little when they out bid the comics for my little ad spots. I’m trying very hard to keep the ads small and unobtrusive and off to the side or down in the footer. Let me know if they get annoying or out of hand.

I also finally replaced my ancient cell phone. It was falling apart, wouldn’t hold a charge for more than one call, and was making a clicking noise in the background when I talked. So yesterday when the screen display started getting flaky, it was time. My new one is an LG Scoop. It’s nice having a functional phone again and it’s so much newer than the old one that I have all sorts of new gadgets built in that are going to be fun to experiment with. I’ve finally joined the era of the camera phone. It just took me like 3 years to get here.

 And I’ve had another finished dishcloth laying around that’s ready for it’s day in the limelight. This one’s even more abstract than the ferris wheel was, but it should sort of look like steel coaster track.

Click here for the pdf file.

My blogiversary this year is falling today, on Easter. Happy Easter! Whether you celebrate the religious events of this day or you’re all about chocolate bunnies and eggs or it’s just another Sunday, enjoy!

It was today two years ago that I started my blog. I’ve also mentioned once or twice, that I started the blog within a couple weeks of my mom’s worst accident to date. She fell and hit her head and suffered major bleeding around her brain. She also somehow survived the whole thing with minimal side effects. She still has a bunch of medical issues unrelated to that accident, but she’s a fighter and she’s still here and I’m grateful.

Of course, it’s a blogiversary, I have to have a contest. Leave a comment on this post before April 12th and you’ll be eligible. So, what’s worth your comments? Well, for the knitters I have two prizes. Both will win a copy of my Kiss That Frog Mittens pattern plus their choice of two colorways of either Paton’s Classic or Cascade 220 to make a pair. As for the non-knitters, I pretty much expect them to be comprised of my coaster geek friends mostly (and I may figure out an alternate prize if the winner isn’t one of my coaster geek friends). So, the non-knitter prize is a set of one each of the amusement park themed dishcloths that I’ve designed knit in the colors of their choice including the three I haven’t quite gotten around to finishing up yet (a total of 6 knit dishcloths).

I also have a new FO to show off. I suppose it’s my Easter hat since I finished it last night. Shedir from Knitty in the called-for yarn, Rowan Calmer. I love it, it fits pretty well, but its a little too deep for my head. If I make it again, I’ll leave out a cable repeat on the sides. It was a nice not-sock interlude between sock madness rounds. I actually had started it before Christmas, and just picked it up and added a couple rows here and there over the last week or so. Fairly quick for the most part, and really lovely finished. It’s just hard to take photos of the top of my head!

While I was eating lunch, I took a headcount in the comments, plugged the numbers in at Random.org.  The knitter winner is Theresa, non-knitter winner is Lori! Congrats, I’ll email you both this evening.

Thanks so much for all the comments! It’s been fun branching out of my shell and meeting all of you the last few weeks, even if only virtually.

And today has been a blast tracking down a lot of the blog posts about yesterday and placing virtual places with real faces (even if I really wasn’t all that social yesterday and only met a few people officially, I’m still recognizing a few people I saw in passing) I thought my bloglines was full before, I’ve added a ton of new blogs to my reading list, and Dana hasn’t even posted her nametagged list of bloggers who were in attendance yet which I’m sure is going to add several more on to my list.

Sock Madness Round 2.

Here’s where I was when I crashed for the night Thursday night.Â

I kitchnered the first toe at 2:30 Saturday morning.

After sleeping in until noon on Saturday, I cast on sock # 2. It’s toe got seamed up at about 1:45 Sunday morning.Â

Four calendar days start to finish, but a total of about 25 hours of work.

My hands hurt and I’m tired, but they’re done, and I think I’m through to the next round. I can’t imagine I’ll last too much longer in the competition though, I’m not the last to finish qualifying in my bracket, but I’m among the last.

Loved the pattern this round though, even if all the passed over stitches were especially hard on my hands. The resulting socks in sport-weight yarn (I used Lornas Laces in Daffodil) are warm and fit wonderfully. And the colors are so springy.

Oh, and if you’re a knitter, it would really be in your best interest to comment on my blogiversary post for the prize… Lets just say that your odds are really really really good, and it would be a shame for me to have to keep the yarn for myself.

I’ve been debating just what to write about today since it’s supposed to be momentous or something.

I’ve mostly used the last year to prove to myself that I’m willing to post somewhat regularly and I won’t be dropping knitting or blogging any time soon. Once I was sure that the habit was good and  established, I’ve been  gradually branching out and letting myself get a little more involved with the community at large I think. Thats also why I waited til now to buy the domain. It doesn’t feel like it’s a waste of money now that I’ve proven that it’ll actually get some use.

This hobby actually goes surprisingly well with that coaster habit I have too. I’m still trying to figure out the easiest way to carry my knitting around the parks with me (I travel light inside the gates), but it’s great for the long road trips and flights that I find myself on frequently. You won’t be seeing me knitting on a roller coaster ever, but I’m not adverse to knitting on the midways or while waiting in line.

I’m starting to comment more on other blogs I read now, where I wasn’t doing that very often before. I might even meet a few of the local-to-my-state knitbloggers when I drag my best friend over to Ann Arbor in another week for the Harlot’s visit.

I’ve definitely expanded my knitting skills in the last year. That’s real easy to do the first year of a hobby though. At this point last year, I think I’d finished a couple scarves and a dishcloth. But I’d definitely qualify myself as somewhere between adventurous beginner and intermediate now even though I haven’t yet tackled the tasks of a sweater or a shawl.

I’m not really sure what drove me into blogging last spring. I was a brand new knitter, I think I’d just started reading blogs around the knitting Olympics. But my timing seems strange too. We were right in the middle of a major family crisis this time last year. I was in the middle of an emotional mess having almost lost my mom 2 weeks before to a fall that resulted in internal bleeding and emergency brain surgery. That’s pretty heavy stuff to deal with. And yet in the midst of all of that I sought refuge by carving out my own little corner of cyberspace with a primary focus that seemed frivolous in comparison.

So, I can’t say for sure what was going through my head at the time. But I’m glad that I set my stake in the ground and have spent the last year establishing the habit of writing something down on a regular basis. So, I’m not going anywhere, and I’m grateful for the slowly budding friendships that this blog has provided me with. I have a knack for finding great communities online and I know that the knitting community online is one of the best. I’m glad to be a part of it.

Ok, enough sappy reminiscent drivel, you all are really just waiting for me to host my first giveaway, right? That’s what I thought. So, comment on this post before April 1st and I’ll select someone who is a knitter and someone who isn’t a knitter (gotta get some of my non-knitting friends to comment here sometime). Make sure to distinguish which group you’re a part of in the comments.

For the knitter, I have a KimiK Sock*tastic Wool Yarn Color Kit in blues and purples. Definitely check out her yarns, the green socks that I made last year were with one of her merino sock yarns. The sock kit is 3 skeins, 2 solids and a coordinating variegate, that total a crazy 525 yards. I’ll probably throw in some other local treats as well.

For the non-knitter, I’ll figure something out, probably something cool from etsy as well as some of those local treats.

So, here’s to another year in blogland! Salut!