We are in the midst of a huge project at work right now, and I am scheduled with 12-hour days July 1 - the 13th, then I get to carry the pager for a week. Crazy and tired doesn’t even begin to describe it, and I’m only on day 3. So, blog updates will be even more sporadic than usual. I think I basically told my parents to pretend I don’t exist and that I would talk to them again on the other side.

During craziness prep this weekend though, I did finish another pair of socks.

These were extremely fast, toe-up stockinette socks out of Ultramerino on size 3s. I think I knit the pair in about 4 days and used up all but the teeniest scrap of the yarn in both balls. Very cushy and comfy.

I do have a sock in my bag that I’ve been picking at between calls after hours on these long days, and I’m slowly adding stitches to the purple socks from sock madness every night before I go to sleep, so I may have a couple more finished pairs to show off in the next couple weeks… but I have to survive first.

Meanwhile, the Rainbow sock is gallivanting around Europe. 

Maybe just a little jealous. Maybe.

Pattern: Monkey

Yarn: Panda Wool (received in a swap one year ago)

Colorway: Circus

It’s nice to finish a pair for me again, as my last two finished pair have gone to my mom. I love how these came out, they weren’t my first Monkeys and they won’t be my last. The pattern is about as second nature to me as plain stockinette anymore.

Today is my birthday. Well, at least for another half hour or so. I’ve had a day full of food and friends and fun and luck.

I spent last weekend with lots of friends at CoasterMania at Cedar Point. We had a blast on Friday for the event despite the heat. Several of us headed to Waldameer Park in Erie, PA for the day on Saturday to give their new coaster several spins (it’s awesome, if you’re even sort of close, support this great little traditional park. The new coaster is definitely a winner!) I’ll be making more trips to visit, hopefully yet this year. And on Sunday, my friend Ed and I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.  The whole weekend was a blast. The RainbowHappySock was there too, and it brought Craig along, so I’m sure once he gets his photos uploaded we’ll have another update here.

Mike told me earlier in the week that he was being a cheapskate and not even sending a card. So instead, I received a bouquet of 18 pink, orange and yellow roses at work this afternoon from him.  They’re lovely even if I had to put them in a Jimmy John’s cup because I don’t have any vases at my desk. They’ll live at work for the remainder of the week to keep the cats out of them, but I think I’ll bring in a proper vase for them tomorrow morning.

I was also sent on a quest today. My mom decided sort of at the last minute before father’s day that she wanted to get my dad a Wii for father’s day. I think she’s had my brother searching for a couple weeks now, and just asked me to start looking last night. Since I was running to a few places after work today anyway, I went on a small search here in town. Birthday magic is a funny thing. I tried Sam’s Club, K-Mart, and Circuit City with no luck. When I got to Jackson Crossing, I knew there were at least 5 or 6 stores that could potentially carry the system, so I parked at one end (Target) and started at the store furthest from where I parked (Sears). Once I got to the department, I asked if they had any in stock, and the guy gave me something of a “I’ll humor you and look” look until we rounded the corner and there in the display was a single Wii box. I snatched it right up and gave mom and my brother each a quick call. The other thing I was on the hunt for was my freezer. I’ve finished pricing them out now, and it’s looking like Sam’s Club and Lowes are the cheapest, Sam’s is about $20 less, I’d just have to convince a coworker to lend me some braun and his truck for part of an evening, otherwise I think I can get Lowes to deliver.

I am still knitting, I started another travel-buddy sock. Another pair of Monkeys. This pair in Panda Wool in the circus colorway. They’re pooling in a kind of strange manner, but they work well for in-park knitting and saw plenty of knitting time last weekend while at the parks.  I have so many other sock patterns I want to play with, but it’s good to fall back on an old standard sometimes too.

It’s a good random day. I’ve been neglecting the blog again and have many little things I want to update.

1) My brother’s gmail account was hacked yesterday. He was able to resolve it, but he wrote a really clear and concise post about what information one needs available and the process he had to go through to reclaim his address. It’s a really good read for anyone who uses gmail.

2) Mikey headed back to Cali on Saturday. We had a great couple of weeks while he was visiting and I miss him tremendously. Just gotta figure out when I’ll drag him back for another trip. Silly work is eating up all my time.

3) We had a great weekend with friends at Holiday World and Beech Bend while he was here. Some of our friends ran into some snags that soured our exclusive ride time a bit at Holiday World, but we still had fun. I didn’t take any photos this year, but I did manage to knit most of a pair of socks that weekend.

4) That pair of socks, I just closed the toe on the second one tonight. They will be going in the mail to my mom soon. Simple stockinette socks out of KnitPicks Felici in the Gelato colorway. They knit up fast and I really like how they came out. Since I finished them tonight, they are also technically my first completed pair for this year’s 52 pair plunge.

5) Socks, socks, socks. I also joined the summer of socks this year. And I’m still knitting up that design in honor of my cousin. And I’ve set a goal for self to finish all the Sock Madness 1 & 2 sock patterns that I haven’t done yet before next spring’s Sock Madness commences. And I’m hoping to submit a design or two for SM3 as well. And wearing a skirt today, I’m really wishing I had a pair of handknit knee socks. Socks, Socks, Socks!

6) My CSA starts next week, my birthday is next week, and I’m headed to Cedar Point and Waldameer Park this weekend for some more coaster time with friends. I will have my camera and a sock or three with me this time, so look for some more photos soon.

7) Another contest won, I guess I’m on a roll lately. Knitsaur requested hand sizes in her comments and drew a name in exchange for that info. I won a skein of Silky Wool.

8 ) While the rest of us were in Indiana and Kentucky, Craig took the RainbowHappySock all over New York and into Quebec. He has a ton of photos, and even wrote up the Quebec part of his trip report in French, but I’m going to be a little lazy and just put together a big mosaic of his photos from this trip. It even witnessed his daughter’s 500th coaster.

My mom has a knack for turning just about any hobby into a money making opportunity, and since her hobby is collecting dolls, we were up at the crack of dawn to setup a couple of tables and sell at a doll show on Saturday morning. It was exhausting, but I was able to finish a sock while sitting there watching all the local doll people mingle.

We wrapped up there and literally went home and all 3 of us crashed at 4pm. It was exhausting. And mom and dad will be doing another show this weekend in Grand Rapids.

Sunday for Mother’s day, we met mom’s aunt for brunch and I gave mom the socks I’d finished at the doll show. I had hoped to have time to make a different pair for her, but I’ll get around to them eventually. My knitting is just kind of being pulled in a zillion directions right now.

The finished socks are the stockinette socks in Trekking that I’ve been picking at for a while. I’ll be starting a couple other stockinette pairs for the summer as I have a few colorways of Knit Picks Felici that I want to play with. The Gelato colorway will be mom’s next pair, and the Coney Island colorway will likely be my park knitting for the summer.

But in the meantime, I’m focussed on the socks for my aunt and hoping to get them wrapped up yet this week so I can give them to her at the celebration of life on Thursday.

I also had a winning day on Friday which was a great end to the week after everything else last week. I was the runner up winner on Christina’s blog contest. Also, in the ultimate spot of enabling, I won fiber on A Verb For Keeping Warm. Camel/Silk blend no less. I think that marks the start of the slippery slope of spinning that I’ve managed to avoid until now. At least I know there’s an amazing spinning shop nearby where I can immerse my self in a new hobby once I’m ready.

Remember all those wee-tiny socks?

One of them has gained a purpose in it’s wee-tiny life.

I suppose I should tell the back story. Guard your children, this one is a little on the *ahem* adult side. Only a little though.

My coaster friend Craig keeps joking about wanting socks. His ulterior motive when I’m wearing or working on handknit socks in his presence is to get one from me and take it into a private place for a “photo session” ala Red Hot Chili Peppers.

So, when I made all the wee-tiny socks for the swap, I decided one of them would be for him. Because if he’s going to have a hand-knit sock for such photo sessions, he should have one that fits.

I gave it to him last weekend at Six Flags Great America. This was his reaction.

So, he’s decided that his project for this summer is for the sock to show up in photos on his various trips. This weekend, he took it to Indiana Beach.

You never know where that sock will pop up. I’ll keep the blog posted with updates while it’s visiting the amusement parks of the world this summer. I hear it might even make it to Europe.

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!

My wee tiny sock arrived at it’s destination late last week. My recipient was KnittingGnome.

And the one headed my way made it on Saturday.

Here it is in all it’s wee tinyness with the adorable sheep stitch marker she sent with it, from Sheep In The City Stacey. Thanks Stacey! It’s adorable.

And Thanks Yarn Miracle for hosting the whole wee-tiny sock swap. It was great fun and far less work than a lot of the other swaps.

Reversai was the pattern of choice for this round of Sock Madness.

We didn’t have the full 40 for each group in round one, so some of us got traded to other teams. I had started out as a member of the Uconn team and was traded to Tennessee. They welcomed me with open arms, but this round especially has been the fastest group. 20 from each group will get through this round and I was #14.

As a April Fools, they gave us the pattern on Monday instead of Tuesday which completely threw off my whole week. I lost an hour of knitting time Monday night while setting up an April Fools of my own on Fun Factories (we swapped out our background image on all forum themes and had some made up headlines in our news fader).

I averaged half a sock a day this week. I had the first sock to the heel on Monday night, turned the heel at lunch on Tuesday and knit the foot Tuesday night (finished at 2 am). Wednesday I cast on and knit to the heel on sock #2. And today I turned the heel at lunch and snuck in a few more rows in the afternoon. The pair was fully finished just after 10 pm.

There were some complaints about the stitch count being too high on this pattern, and while I can sense that mine may sag a little with some wear, they initially fit pretty well. And as much of a pain as the garter stitch sole and toe was to knit, it seems to wear really cushy. I think they were made extra cushy with my yarn choice, Gypsy Knits BFL in Merry Go Round. This stuff was like knitting with butter clouds. The yarn has a bit of a sheen to it, and the garter stitch especially is so soft. Luxury socks indeed.

I loved the garter stitch short row heel especially. I can’t say that I’ve enjoyed any of the short row heels I’ve knit in the past. I was never confident that I was doing it right and I didn’t like the fit of the ones I’d finished so I think of all the socks I’ve knit to this point, only 3 pair have had a short row heel. But between the garter stitch and the way the yarn striped in the heel, it really made sense this time. All my wrapped stitched were a different color from the center stitches I was working, so it made it really obvious which stitches they were. And the added stretch plus the “squat” stitches of the garter make them fit my feet really well.

Bring on Round 3!

Can’t make just one.

Wee tiny socks for the wee tiny sock swap. From left to right yarns are Sunshine Yarn, Lana Grossa, Claudia’s, and Fiesta Baby Boom. Now I just have to decide which one to drop in the envelope to my swap match on Monday. Or maybe I’ll just make a half-dozen more.