Oh Happy Day!

Yesterday was a good day. Shawn came home early. Jem behaved, (it was his day off). Scout was smiling. And I got to knit for two hours uninterrupted. (That just doesn't happen around the house too often.) I took a little ride to Simply Knitting for their Sit and Stitch night and finished these:

I can now say that I have knit myself a pair of socks! A pair of comfy socks! (I cheated, I admit it. I did a three needle bind off for the toes, because I just wasn't getting the whole grafting process. I think I'm going to make a swatch and practice on that.)

But I'm just so dang proud of myself. And you should be too! This is where I got stuck with my first attempts at sock knitting:

But no more! They are very comfortable. I knit the Koigu KPPM on US 3's, about 7 1/2 sts=1". I started to swatch the STR Lucy last night on US 2's. There is a noticable difference even though they are the same weight. Oh, and I've decided that I'm changing "Lucy" to "Dalton". Though I'm not 100%, I believe that they named the colorway after Wendy's pretty ragdoll, I believe that Dalton is the epitomy of Siamese and that was the reason I bought the yarn. I dub the next pair of socks Dalton.

After the Sit and Stitch, I stopped by Cold Stones and got this:

If you've never had Peanut Butter Cup Perfection, find your nearest CS and pick it up. It's so delicious!

Now some of you may have seen this new Ripple Along that Alicia pretty much started. Well, I had kept track of her progress. I must say that she amazes me and inspires me. I've decided to jump on the bandwagon and do a little rippling myself. And if you don't think I can crochet, I have proof!

(I apologize that it's so small.) I crocheted this blanket from a Leisure Arts baby afghan book, (that I got from Michael's), for my friend Christy. She was having a baby and I wanted to make something that would last. I decided to try my hand at crochet. One of the women at the LYS that I used to frequent was an amazing crocheter and she helped me a great deal, (especially because the pattern in the book is wrong). Anyway, there's my proof. And I already decided the colors of the yarn. I *think* that I'm going to do a ripple afghan in dark and light teal, dark brown and oatmeal. I think that it would make a lovely afghan. (Sorry, but I don't see myself going through my odds and ends in my stash and just coming up with something. I like an organized sense of color.)

Jem and Scout are doing well. Jem is still a pistol. That won't change. And Scout, well she's smiling a lot now. It's hard to capture on the camera though, but I got a few good ones. (I'm updating Flickr if you want to see the others.

She's such a happy girl!

And that makes me happy.

She seems so amazed.

In other news, I ordered yarn. More yarn. But you, my dear friends, must wait until I get pictures. Hint: I ordered yarn for the Ribs and Lace Tank. (BTW, Bekka, you asked me about the cheap Debbie Bliss. Check out Jannette's Store out. She's always got great deals on DB and Rowan!) I also ordered some RYC cheap from Jimmy Beans. Check it out, they are like $6.32 a ball for the RYC Cashsoft 4ply. 198 yards!.

Oh, one more thing, I had my interview at Home Depot this morning and got the job. I start the orientation in like two weeks assuming my background check and blood test comes back clean. No problemo.

Yay!

A Couple of Things

I finished the first River sock.

Pretty, ain't she?

I had issues with the grafting. I tried about five or six times and opted out and did a three needle bind off. I am not really sure why it wasn't working, but when I'd get to the last two stitches, they were always too loose. This worked out fine.

And the best part? Remember how I had to go back to the LYS to grab their last skein of Koigu? Well, it turns out I didn't even need it. So I bought two of these:

More Koigu KPPM in blues, pinks and beiges. For socks. For more socks.

And Scout is a celebrity. While at the LYS two women, (I know for sure that one works there), were talking about the lady who works there's granddaughter, (who was born the same day as Scout), and how old she was. The one lady asked me how old Scout was and what her name was. When I said, "Scout", she asked if I had a blog. Well yes I do! Turns out she reads my blog. How cool is that!

I also found out that the second Friday of the month they have a special knitting night. So I'll be going to that next Friday.

So here's the boogie woogie:

And here's the boogie woogie with her daddy:

Just a little, Not a lot

As you can imagine, I've been busy. Our car has been giving us major problems lately: spark plugs exploding, car not starting, (this only happens to Shawn though), radiator leaking, head gasket...I've realized I'd much prefer the horse and buggy days. Cars are too unreliable. Especially used cars. And unfortunately, we rely on the car too much. Especially when we live 25 miles away from where everything is. It's not that we don't have things around us, just not the things we are used to, like the library, (that actually carries a variety of books), our doctors, my mom...It's rough.

But while I've been keeping busy and not trying to stress too much about the car, (I can't help but think I'll be driving somewhere and get stuck on the side of the freeway, Scout in tow), I've had a chance to do a little reading, knitting related too!

Knitting Under the Influence by Claire LaZebnik. Essentially it's about a trio of friends who knit and all the drama they live with. And since I don't have a knitting circle anymore, (I actually used to knit at a yarn shop in the Valley every day with the same women), I find that maybe if I read about others who do, well I can live vicariously through them. Sad, ain't it? (How about the fact that I told Shawn that the cast of "Grey's Anatomy" are my friends. I live through them. He got a good kick out of that!)

And when I'm not reading about knitting, I'm actually knitting:

Those are the Koigu socks that from here on out I will refer to as my River socks because the colors remind me of a river. So take that! I am doing them on US 3's at 7 1/2 sts= 1". They are a little loose, but not baggy like the Orchids socks. My bad! The stitch is a garter rib stitch, knit one round and then K2, P2 the next round. Back and forth, forth and back.

I have about 1 1/2" more to go before I can start shaping for the heel. But that's ok. As long as I'm knitting. When I'm not working on these I'm working on the Vogue Cabled Tunic as well. There's so much cabling, now I remember why I put it away for a while. But it's seeing the light of day and looking quite lovely.

Meet Giraffey.

He's Scout's buddy, though she could really care less about her new friend.

She's too busy checking out the lights. And other stuff.

She is now 23 1/2" and 11 lbs. 14 oz. So take that! The Dr. said that the breastfeeding is obviously working quite well. And that makes me happy.