getting on with it

After some words of encouragement from the talented ladies in Sip n Knit I am persevering with the purple cardi. Feels like I've been working on this forever but actually only since Feb 10th. Am now half way up the first sleeve: both fronts and back, done.

And of course, I started another pair of socks. I planned to make Brother Amos, Brenda Dayne's pattern that she was talking about in the podcasts I was listening to - have almost caught up with Cast On. Then when I downloaded it...I saw the pattern requires Magic Loop - something I don't care to learn as I am very happy with my dpns thank you. Anyone know if there's a dpn version of this pattern? Or maybe I should learn - any converts out there who've adopted Magic Loop and can't imagine going back?

So instead - Jaywalker by Grumperina. I was a bit grumpy myself on the Metro last nite going through the first few rounds of the pattern. Made no sense, not at all intuitive...I was going straight home to see where the pattern errata were I mean honestly how irresponsible to post a pattern with mistakes in it...
Then I realized I'd cast on 2 stitches too few. Whoops.
So it's now coming on nicely. But at 76 stitches around, slowly. Using KnitPicks Dancing in a wonderful citrusy colourway. This yarn is now discontinued so Lord knows how long it's been hanging out in the stash...
Pictures coming - probably :)

more purple cardi

Here's the Dollar and a half cardi - I am about 2/3 the way up the back, in the middle of the 3rd of 14 skeins...I think I still like it. Just hope the reverse st st doesn't bulge out, as it does in this, admittedly unblocked, piece. I am just so impatient though. I can't work on just one piece at a time. Here's a crochet scarf I'm making, with silk yarn sent by my lovely friend Flibbertygibbet. It's so soft and lovely, will be perfect for springtime. Whenever that arrives. Speaking of: It's not quite daffodil weather but Trader Joe's had these, all the way from England. (What's the carbon footprint there? Hmm...)And just to make you all jealous: my cute boy -

Is it only Wednesday?

To describe how my week's been, take today. I left the house at 6:40 AM, and got back at 7:10 PM. I only clocked in 5.5 h at work. Yep, 7 hours travelling. I went to my local office. You see, it was snowing. Barely. On the plus side, I got to listen to 3 episodes of the Cast On podcast (I am up to episode 22 now) and about an hour's worth of "Queen Lucia", recently downloaded from Audible.

By the time I got home I just couldn't face getting back into the car, not even to go to my wonderful knitting group in Border's (Hi Columbia Sip and Knit! Love you guys!). But I did finish my socks tonight, yay!

These are a keeper. Not just because a girl can never have too many knitted socks, but because the left one is half a pattern repeat longer than the right. Ahem.

I'm a bit disappointed in how they turned out though - these are the Waving Lace pattern, by Evelyn Clark, from Favorite Socks by Interweave. I used OnLine Supersocke 100 yarn. The lace pattern hardly shows up at all, so this lovely variegated colorway is kind of wasted. A solid, paler color probably would work better. Ah well.

In other news, mailed my Ravelry yarn swap yesterday. The "crab yarn" was the unanimous choice, and to go with it I made some stitch markers, because my swapee mentioned on her blog that she needed some . I found a great instruction site here. Aren't they cute?

Plus, I got to use up some of the bead stash. (In addition to a yarn stash, I have a bead stash, a scrapbooking stash, and a book stash). There are many theories on stash: I believe that when I supplement my stash I am promising myself the time to use and enjoy whatever it is I'm buying. Though with 7 hour commutes I'm not sure when that will be...

Do you have a stash theory, or - are you in stash denial?