The Non-Sock Knitter

The name of this blog could very well be "my name is tracy. i don't knit socks." I was pretty adamant in my aversion to sock knitting. I have tried socks a few times before. I have even made Christmas stockings for my family. But I never felt bitten by the sock bug. I just didn't get it. Until a few months ago. Chauntel wrote up a pattern for a pair of socks, which she is wont to do quite often, and then, quite timidly I must say, asked me to test knit them. "I'm sorry, what?" I said. "I know you don't like socks but you are the perfect person to try them out. I need a new sock knitter to try them," she bravely replied. I chortled. I guffawed. I giggled. But I was intrigued... "Sure! Heck, why not!" I finally said. So, I knit them. Well, I knit one of them. But I finished that sucker right up quick! I cannot show you the proof of said sock knitting (it's a secret) but I even have plans for the next pair. In fact, I have plans for the next 11. See, I have secretly been buying sock yarns. I have yearned after them for years but never gave in. Because I don't knit socks. Well, my non existent sock stash has grown to this:

Right now, the socks I am just about jonesing to start are the German Stockings. Because they will be made out of Peruvian Baby Silk. Chaun gave that to me as a gift. I think she was just overjoyed that I was actually knitting a sock. For reals.

Nothing clever here.

Oh, it's been awhile since I posted! Sorry about that! I did get a request for info on the Julia. I am past 15" and have started the armhole shaping. It's tiny yarn on tiny needles but it's going fairly quick. Probably because I love it so. I did set that down on Sunday and I pulled out an old fav, The Babette. Remember The Babette? Crocheted squares of all sizes and colors. I put it down last time because I spent the majority of an afternoon sewing up those damn squares. And I hate sewing up the squares! And of course, I left the 2 biggest panels to the end. Which means I have A LOT of squares to sew together. Wait, what was that you just said? Did I want some cheese with my whine?? Why yes I do! And yes, I am whining. :) I am really just ready to have this blanket done and the amount of sewing I still have left to do is quite daunting. Maybe I will recruit some help... maybe if the price is right... Chauntel! Come on down!! :))

Okay, I am done talking about knitting. I am sneaking in this post at work so it has to be short. And I think my next post will be about quilting. My new favorite hobby.

I leave you with some photos I took over the weekend.

:)

Don't you just love it? I do...
Edit 4/24 0845: The pattern is Julia from Rowan Classic Summer #11. The yarn is RYC Classic Cashsoft DK in Chartreuse. It's actually the yarn in the picture. And let me tell you something... This yarn is so soft and so wonderful to work with. Finally I am looking forward to a project. :)

The last Saturday

It's less than 36 hours until I have to go back to work. SO not looking forward to it! So, I decided to make the best of my last vacation Saturday and spent it quietly. It was the only day this entire week that I have had nothing to do. So, I spent it knitting. :) I finished up one project (a secret one) and started a new one, Julia. I don't remember what book it is from (Chaun? Would you provide the name??) I am knitting it with the yarn in the photo. It's RYC Cashsoft DK in Chartreuse. It's knit on size 2's & 3's. It's going to take me awhile. :)

I also knit on the Rusted Root. I am done with all the fun parts and am just working on the stockinette body portion. I have to keep reminding myself that I am doing it in the round and the hardest parts are done.
And now it's almost 10p and I will soon need to wake up so I can go to church in the m orning and Marin's baby shower in the afternoon. And my vacation will be over. I am sorta ready to go back to work but I am praying there have been no issues while I was gone. Which is highly unlikely but all I can do is go in and do my job, right? Right. :))

I hope you all had a wonderful quiet weekend also.

She's Crafty-again!

So, does that song pop into your head when you read that title?? 'Cause I read it and have a moment of Beastie Boys for myself... Yeah, that takes me back to sixth grade when we had Radio Days. Days we were allowed to bring our boom boxes (c'mon, you know you had one!) to school. One of the guys that we hung out with brought his Beastie Boys tape one radio day. I have loved them ever since.

Anyways. I got crafty again today. Did you see Chaun's wall of fabric'd embroidery hoops? I had to do the same. And the only blank wall I had left (well, other than my bedroom wall but why put it up in there? It's so small, I only use it for sleeping, not enjoying my wall art) was in the bathroom.

So pretty. :)

It's funny how I took a week off of work to kind of destress and I have been just as busy as if I had been going to work this whole time. My weekend was taken up with horses, driving, and errands (with my Dad:)) and the rest of the week has been spent soaking up quality time with my bff. We spent Wednesday running some errands that included hitting a fabric store and a yarn store. Today was bible study, BB'sKnits (You do know she is closing, right?? Everything is on sale! Picked up some more Silky Wool. Because I love it so much.) and picking up the kids at school (where we had to do open house early because Chaun has a class tonight so they aren't going). Whew! Tomorrow is Thomas Day Out and hanging out at the Andreasen's. Saturday is allll mine. Sunday is church and Marin's baby shower. And then back to work. Lovely.

I am feeling the need to explain some things. This is on a personal note. I am a solitary person. I love being by myself, having my home all to me, being quiet. And occasionally I go through periods where I don't want to spend time with people. More so than usual. I work with people everyday for my job and it takes it out of me. Everyone at knitting makes fun of me because I rarely stay past 8p. The reasons for that are plenty: I usually don't have time to eat dinner before knitting, I have Grey's Anatomy to watch, but a lot of it is that I am done with people at that point in my day. It has nothing to do with the actual people I spend time with, it's just that if I spend 8 hours with people, I need just as much time by myself. I have friends who are social butterflys and I just don't get it! I find myself getting short tempered, crabby, and downright mean when I don't have my solitary time. The reason I bring all this up is that I have not gone to knitting in ... three weeks, I think. And I am not going again tonight. At first I felt the need to apologize to my friends there, but really? This is who I am. I have always been like this. I will go back to knitting group, it may be soon, it may not be. The past year was a rough one and I spend a lot of time thinking about everything that happened (and not just with my mom but with friends whose moms have passed also). I see the world through different eyes these days and it's taking a lot of adjustment. I am not looking for sympathy or any of the such. I just wanted to let you know where I am at. I am here. I do knit (it's been very hard to not cast on more and more, lemme tell ya!) and I do miss my friends.

And on that note, I am off to knit the night away! It's Thursday! A new Grey's is on! Let's all celebrate! :)

Edited 4/19 8:53p: In answer to two questions from my comments, Leslie asks what's up with BB's. Well, she is closing her doors at the end of June. She still has a good amount of stock, enough of many colors to do complete projects. Check her out but don't forget that Julie at Knit&Pearl has yarns on sale also. :) And in answer to Jenn's question, the hoops are not glued. I wanted to have the option of changing the fabric out so I tightened them to within a millimeter of their life. Also, the hoops are from a lot I got off Ebay. $20 for 20 hoops or something like that.

The List

We all have a list. It's the list of things we want to do/accomplish/try out in our lives. It may contain having a baby, going on safari in Africa, crab fishing, painting, learning html, going alone to a party, etc. No, those aren't all on my list, I was just tossing them out there as examples. One of the items on my list, though, was to ride a horse. Pretty simple. And odd that I never have considering I grew up in the foothills of the Sierras. Big horse country up there. Well... I have SAT on a horse. Way back when I was involved with my little Bluebirds group (an off-shoot of CampFire Girls) and one of the girls had a horse. I swear this horse was 2 stories tall. So, they put me on it and I sat there white knuckled, quietly terrified until they took me off. I have been scared of them ever since. This weekend, my dad and his friend Jerilyn invited me to go along on a horse ride. I figured why not! Well. It turned out to be a 4 hour trail ride. And I am not talking a flat trail ride, I am talking hilly, steep grades, creeks, wild pigs, and rain kind of trail ride. We started out nice and easy until we came across a farm of llamas. The horses didn't like that so much. Jerilyn's freaked out, Dad's danced, and mine... mine started trotting. And I started laughing. Because hell if I knew what to do with a trotting horse! Apparently I am supposed to be in charge of the horse. Hahahaha! Hold on a second while I wipe the tears of laughter and incredulity from my eyes. I did get a basics lesson that morning but everything Jerilyn told me went right out my brain when that horse started going. I did get the horse under control (after Jerilyn yelled at me) and we sedately continued on our walk. All in all, it wasn't a horrible experience. But it is definitely an experience to be checked off my List.

This is my dad and I. He is riding Chix, I am on Tem. Not sure that it means anything but there we go.

This is Jerilyn, me, and my dad.
I have never been that little girl that loved horses but I can now see why people do. :)

She's Crafty!

She get's around...She's crafty, she's always down! Well, at least the crafty part is correct. :) Do you ever go to read someone's blog and it's been forever and a day since they last posted? And then they come back and post about allllll these things that happened? In my head, their life is in stasis. I am always shocked when I read that their life as actually...gone on. Anyway! My life has just been truckin' along. Spent Easter Sunday up at George's sister, Karen, house. She served our lunch with this drink:

She was kind enough to let me take a bunch home and try to do something with them. And knowing me, if I don't do it now, it will never get done. So, I washed them up and filled them with colored water (for now). The colors are better in person (obvi!) but at least you get the idea.

And in the same crafty vein, I have a bunch of embroidery hoops coming from a lot I won on Ebay (is it really winning when I have to pay for my prize?). One of my favorite blogs to read, Posie Gets Cozy, recently posted about her foray into textile decorating. And I need to copy her. So, Chauntel and I went over to Craft Essentials (okay, they have a great yarn selection AND an awesome fabric selection) and after some debate, and conversation with Charlie (ask me sometime, I will tell you about this sweet child), we walked out with 9 different, beautiful fabrics. You can see some of them on her blog. She actually enjoys embroidery and has her own hoops already. After spending a little time in the fabrics, I actually have a small desire to quilt. I would love to have my own little craft room (which is basically what my entire house is right now, all 420 square feet of it. Patterns on the bathroom floor, knit magazines in my bedroom, let's not even talk about the living room...) but alas, I cannot. So, the quilting isn't going to happen any time soon but someday...

I have been knitting (really, I don't ever stop) and knitting on the same things. Rusted Root in Tangerine, the secret project, and I started another secret project. See why I don't post? I can't talk about my knitting right now! I could discuss the new yarns I have bought but I really don't feel like parading them around for me to feel guilty about. :) So, instead, I will leave you with a picture of one of my secret projects...