Plath’s Adventures

I’m feeling overwhelmed today. I spent all morning de-cluttering the bathroom– throwing away all the old makeup and toiletries I haven’t used in years, then rooted through my clothes and made a huge donation pile, and even threw away two baskets full of magazines and catalogs I’ve been stockpiling. I’m just beginning to feel as though my possessions are starting to own me instead of the other way around. Be warned– there may be a stash sale posted here sometime soon. Maybe.

Anyway, I haven’t knit much in the past couple days, although there is a little progress on Chocolate Waffles

As you can see, I’ve turned the heel thanks to Amityville Horror (2005) and The Saw which we watched the other night.

There’s an interesting new knitting magazine out. Kind of dark and twisted if you’re into that kind of thing: AntiCraft. They say that future issues may not be knitting based, but instead include other crafts; still interesting nonetheless.

New Magknits is up. Durrow looks great, Holly is neat, but I don’t think I’d knit them. I do love that they went monthly though.

Ran across a cute top-down cardi pattern here: CosmicPluto. Future use for my Cotton Ease stash? Perhaps.

I leave you with one more Autumn picture I took yesterday on another bike ride. The weather yesterday was perfect.

A Morning In Pictures

This morning, I decided, even though it was still chilly, to go on a bike ride. I’m glad I did, even though I may not be able to walk in the morning! I didn’t go far– just down our road and back, but check out the sites (all taken from our road):

I love tree-canopied roads.

My jello legs and frozen ears, will now curl up with this

and try to find something scary on tv to watch. I love my circa 1981 mug filled with hot cocoa, and my Chocolate Waffle socks are coming out nicely. I think they will become a gift, but I’m not sure who the recipient will be as of yet.

Oh and remember Rox’s Survivor Contest? I can’t believe Rafe is still in it! Of the four of us in the contest, only my and Kathy’s choices are still left. I’m shocked!

Socktober FO!

They really aren’t so day-glo, but it’s still dark out and it’s hard to get a good picture.
Yarn: Yarn Smith’s Sock yarn bought at the Yellow Spring’s Fiber Festival (they don’t appear to sell online– bummer)
Needle size: 2
Stitch count: 54
Cuff is p1k2 ribbing and heel flap is (RS)*s1purlwise,k1 across (WS) s1, p across [same heel flap as the Razor Shell pattern]

Here is my third pair of finished Socktober socks. I stayed up last night, waiting patiently and knitting while Jason watched Queen of the Damned (which we’d already seen, and I didn’t enjoy so much the first time around) until 9 when “my show” comes on. Little did I know, it was a repeat! ARG

They didn’t stay on the Sock Blockers for long. It was 29*F when I got up this morning. BRRRRR! So, they’re already on my feet. Besides, I’ve been knitting here and there during lunch time at the school I’ve been at all week, and I think the kids will think it’s neat if I wear them today.

Yesterday, I decided I wasn’t quite done with socks, so I signed up for Pixie Purls‘

I cast on for a pair of brown socks, using the same cuff as my last pair (p1k2 around), but I think I’m going to try the blueberry waffle pattern for the rest of the sock. I suppose I’ll have to rename them Chocolate Waffles? The yarn is a brown hand-dyed and came from my KR Secret Pal, who kind of disappeared, but sent me some great stuff in the first package I received. Never found out who she/he was, or my angel. Wherever you are, I hope you’re both ok!

Jason and I decided yesterday that we may as well go to Florida in late November, as well as England in January! Two vacations in one season! So, we’re flying down to Florida on November 22nd, and I’ll be flying back alone on the 30th, while he has a big auto-related show to attend. I’ve heard the yarn stores are pretty far and between down there, anyone have any I *must* hit near Orlando? We’ll be staying with his Grandmother for a few days, and then another few days near Sea World at the Renaissance Resort. I can’t wait!

A quickie

I got my Sock Scrap Swap package yesterday, and all I have to say is WOWZA! It was a definite pick-me-up after my bad day yesterday.

My awesome pal was KS, and she sent me lots of sock yarn scraps (of course!), some orange cotton yarn and even my favorite, Salt n Vinegar potato chips! YUM.

In my Socktober news, I’ve made a bit of progress on my Fiber Fest socks:

I’m a couple inches away from starting the toe decreases. I love having small feet

Rox challenged her readers to post a favorite fall or Wedding picture so here is mine. Unfortunately we don’t have our wedding pictures on disc, so it’s a picture of a picture. I keep this one on the fridge.

A few people asked how exactly my washer “ate” my supposed-to-be-felted pumpkins. Well, it kind of ripped them apart at their seams and left gaping holes. Does that explain it enough?

And thanks for those of you who shared in my excitement about our England trip in January! It’s scheduled for January 10th-20th. We can’t wait. I’m a little nervous about taking knitting with me, as I’ve heard bad things about Northwest flights leaving the UK not allowing knitting on board. Hope that doesn’t happen, but I’ll be sure to bring a self addressed stamped envelope if that should happen to be the case.

Socktober Progress

Way back in January, I dubbed 2005 to be the Year of the Sock. Well, once I got into late February I was sick of socks and started working on sweaters. I must say, Socktober has convinced me that I’m truly a phase-oriented gal. I go through food phases (my most recent being avocados– especially sliced up in salad– YUM), book phases (I have classics phases, chicklit phases, real lit phases, and am currently reading all of the needlecraft mysteries– as obnoxious as they are), and now we have knitting phases. Obviously, I’m in another sock phase. It’s all your fault Lolly! My poor oversized raglan sweater is still sitting in my knitting bag, nary a stitch knit in weeks, my green and brown striped raglan is still waiting for a few lone ends to be woven in, and all I can think about are socks. Sock yarn, sock patterns, socks, socks, socks.

Here is my latest finished sock

I’m really happy with how this yarn knit up! I had to frog everything back Thursday night after almost starting the heel flap, as it was turning out to big on 65 stitches and there was significant pooling, so I cut it back to 54 and it’s perfect!

I also have other exciting news. Jason and I have been thinking about taking a vacation. We haven’t yet done the whole stay-in-a-hotel-vacation-thing unless you count our mini-Honeymoon (2 nights in Windsor, Ontario), we’ve only really gone on camping vacations. So, he has a couple business trips to go on the next few months, and we were going to plan one around his trip to Florida in November. However, he was booking his plane tickets for another trip in January and got seats for $500 round trip so he called me and told me we’re going to

ENGLAND!

I’ve never even been on an airplane, let alone a foreign country (besides Canada)!! I’m so freaking excited; something better not mess up our plans between now and then. I’ve already started a list of things I must buy. Vegetarian Skittles and Starburst top the list, and of course Debbie Bliss and Rowan. I’ll be sure to ask for lots of recommendations when it gets closer to our actual trip We plan on at least hitting London and Stratford upon Avon.

So yesterday was a lousy day (see my hungry washing machine story below if you missed it). Today is another day.

I woke up to find a dead rodent in our back kitchen this morning. So how about that for another bad day, huh? Today, however, I decided to take matters into my own hands and try to change things. So, first off, I finished these:

A basic sock in Regia yarn. I then decided to cast on for another pair, and tried a pattern from IK’s site, but didn’t like how it was knitting up with my uber-wonderful sock yarn from Yellow Spring’s Fiber Festival, so I frogged and decided to go with another basic sock. I love the colors in this yarn; it reminds me of a gorgeous tie dye t-shirt. (Yes, I’m a fan of jewel toned tie dye– be quiet).

Now I’m off to work. Just a half-day today. Hope things stay looking up!

So…. uh… I guess you’re looking for the cute felted pumpkins I posted about yesterday…

Well…

my washing machine must have been hungry, what with my procrastination at doing laundry lately, so it decided…

to eat them.

Yep, that’s right, we had a little felting catastrophe. So, it’s back to the drawing board as far as my mom’s belated birthday gift goes.

Here they are, cute as can be before the washing machine from hell got to them (because of course, it’s the washing machine’s fault and not my shoddy seaming skills).

And I will spare you the gory guts laden pictures of them after. Oh I’m so depressed about it. I even spent an hour trying to repair them after I pulled them from their near death, and dropped them into the machine’s hungry mouth again, but it was to no avail. Phooey phooey phooey! I don’t know if I can even bear to knit today. Perhaps I’ll pick up the sock again, perhaps not. Here’s a picture of our road, and a little bit of color on trees to distract you. I love our winding, tree-lined, dirt road

PS I was driving as I took the picture, so that’s a glimpse of my Jeep in the bottom

Well, I did get some knitting done last night on the sock match

It’s hard to tell from the pic, but I just turned the heel. However, something stopped me in my tracks this morning and said “MUST KNIT THIS.” So, I put down the sock and so far have these

Can you tell what it will become? Hopefully by the end of the night, I’ll be ready for the washing machine and will end up with two of the little ones of these. I knew I must have them. However, if they turn out, they will be put in a box and mailed to my mom as a late birthday gift. I’ve been searching and searching for something to knit her for her birthday, and now I have it!