I finished knitting my sockapaloooza socks Wednesday night and I weaved in the last of the ends at knitting Thursday night. These socks need to be washed and blocked, but are otherwise finished. I cast on for a new pair of socks for Kevin on size 0s, which by the end of knitting night were hurting my hands. So I'll have to be sure to frequently switch between the socks and a square for the blanket. Although, I did see a new pattern that caught my eye. Calla from the new Magknits. I don't know that I'd wear it was a tank, but I was thinking of wearing it more like my Tube Toporini as a "vest" over a button down shirt. That option would allow me to probably start it today with something from the stash. Time to go veg on the couch!

I'm in a funk. I blame it all on this daylight savings crap. Ever since the time change I've been exhausted. I still go to bed in the midnightish range and have been sleeping in much later than I should, and I don't feel rested. Combine this is with an overwhleming pile of work that needs to be accomplished and zero motivation and a more general knitting funk and that's why I haven't posted in a week. In the picture here is the sock I'm making for Kevin. It is about twice as long now since this picture is from Tuesday (at normal knitting speed I should have turned the heel already). The sock is pictured with another CocaCola failure. I tried the original vanilla coke when it came out and was nearly ill by the overwhelming vanilla aftertaste. I hoped that the addition of black cherry would balance out the vanilla. Nope. Blech! Anyway, the sock is Regia something or other on size 0s. I've also knitted another square for the blanket (speaking of the squares, I took them all to the laundry mat with me yesterday and threw them all in the washing machine, and then gave them a brief trip in the dryer on medium heat. They are air drying the rest of the way now, they are super soft now and all of the stitches have nicely evened out.) So other than a gray sock and some squares I have nothing to knit. I started Calla from the new Magknits in some pink Wool of the Andes, but I'm not loving it. I think I'm going to rip it out. I did order the new Mason Dixon Knitting book online after seeing it at knitting on Thursday (that's what is great about having a librarian in your knitting group!). I'm hoping something in there inspires me to get excited about something to knit.

Thank you for all the nice compliments on the Sockapaloooza socks. I also took them with me to the laundry mat and washed them. They came out beautifully and are now blocking (and to clarify, by blocking I mean drying while laying flat.)

Spur of the moment, I made an appointment to get my hair cut and colored this coming Wednesday. I'm a little nervous because I've never been to this place before, but they had a sign that said "free cut with first time color service," so I figured why not.

I'll try not to disappear for another week!

Ooh that title sounds dirty! So in my knitting boredom, I flipped through the entire 365 Days of Knitting Calendar and pulled out the 20 patterns that were even the tiniest bit interesting. I love the idea of this calendar, but so many of the patterns are cheesy or ugly and the instructions are terribly written. But I picked out a few things worth saving. I wanted to knit up something quick last night, so I picked the baby bootie pattern that's from May 2nd. I had some KnitPicks Palette (leftover from Kevin's hat) that I was swatching with for a sweater for my dad (I'm still undecided about a yarn for that). Anywhos, the bootie took less than 3 hours to finish. There was supposed to be an eyelet row and an i-cord bow, but I skipped that. Oh, and the foot was supposed to be garter stitch, but purling entire rows in the round?! That's insane. The only thing I didn't like about the pattern was the shaping for the sole. It didn't make sense and resulted in mismatched decreases. But today was a sunny day, so I took my bootie (heehee!) and camera outside for some pictures. Here is my "artwork":

Title: Bootie in the Grass

Title: Bootie in the Grass (Zoomed)

Title: Adventurous Bootie

Title: Bootie the Blue Sky (Sorry, Bono!)

No knitting content today... just a rant. Ok, so the diagram will help explain my hatred. #1 is our apartment, specifically our living room and living room windows. #2 is the garage in the back of the neighbor's yard. Notice how close it is to our apartment. #3 is the crap pile. #4 is the other neighbors, I have no problem with them. About a month or two ago, Kevin and I noticed a lot of noise coming from the garage (#2) and since there are no curtains we looked in the windows and noticed that there are couches and a radio and lots of alcohol containers and some other probably illegal type stuff. When it is cold outside, we can hear them out there, but not too much. On the days recently when it has been nice enough to open the windows, we can hear every word of every conversation. We can hear the music and the screaming for no reason. #3 is the pile of garbage they decided to put in the corner of their yard. With our windows open the wind blows the lovely fragance of decomposing trash into our living room. Yum! Just a few minutes ago, I walked out into my back yard, which I have ever right to do and these neighbors were standing in their yard yelling and laughing with some friends (that's fine), but gave me the evil eye for being in my own yard. The past two summers at this apartment has been quiet and relaxing, and now I'm constantly annoyed and angry with these neighbors. I'm not sure how old they are, they certainly don't look old enough to drive, but where they are living is a house converted into apartments, so they have to be at least college students, which is weird because most of the places in town won't rent to college students (because of the noise, trash, etc). Yeah, so it pisses me off and I can't do anything about it.

Well, I didn't have much to say, but that didn't mean I wanted to snap a needle. Especially one that was barely in use! The aborted Calla was on this needle, and yes, ok, I'll admit I was trying to push it into a corner of the chair that is full of other crap, and one too many little pushes and snap. It is kind of sad because it was a Brittany size 5 and the first ever pair of "fancy" needles I ever bought. I don't remember what I bought them for, but oh well. Although I do believe they are the only size 5s I had. Hmmm...

I'm still in my knitting funk. I've just been slowly working on Kevin's sock and a square. I did figure out it takes about 3.5 hours for a square. With 30 squares, that's 105 square hours (without seaming!). That's a lot. So yeah the funk continues. I looked at the new Knitty and was underwhelmed. I'm waiting for my Amazon order with the Mason-Dixon knitting book. I'm hoping that that will jump start something. Why did I decide to be frugal and pick the super shipper savings?! The estimated delivery date is 4/21. Let's hope that's wrong!

Haircut pics tomorrow if all goes well!

The Met in the upper left hand corner of the yearbook is David Wright. He's my secret baseball boyfriend (if only I actually knew him, and he was about 5 years older). But sshhhh, don't tell Kevin. He thinks I love Cliff Floyd best (pictured at the top right next to David). But I'm fickle with baseball boyfriends. Heehee!

Highlights + Color + Cut + Blowdry = over 4 hours with Chris, my new hair friend. Backing up waaaay far in our story, for the vast majority of my life (as in the first 22+ years) my aunt was my hairdresser... cuts, colors, perms, proms. But since coming to grad school, it is a bit of a hike to drive home for a hair fix-up. Particularly when I decide to do things to my hair on short notice, that's hard to plan in 3 hours round trip as well. I've tried 2 salons while at grad school. The first felt snobby. Not that they were actually snobby, because I was treated very nice while I was there, but the girls who worked there seemed much more hip and cool than me, and I felt out of place (and it was run by Joey Fatone... not really, but I swear the dude was Joey Fatone's twin). That was also the place of the infamous chopping off of all of my hair. The other place I tried was a random walk-in appointment when I was growing out the short-do. It was nice. The lady who owned and ran the place was very sweet. But there were a lot of little old ladies getting their hair cut there. So again I felt out of place. So the new place I tried today (mind you, all of these places are on main street in my town, and there are still at least 5 others to potentially try... why do we have so many hair salons in one tiny town?), I picked because they had a special of a free haircut with a first time color service (I think they are looking for more/new clients... and it worked with me!). I was greeted by the owner, Larry David (ok again, not really... but dude could have been his first cousin). Chris, a very nice guy who likes 80s music and to laugh at the silly gossipy Jewish women, was my hair stylist. I had no idea that I was going to be there for 4 hours. But I got to see a lot of interesting women including, one mother and daughter pair who I think Chris aptly described as "having no idea how to act in public." I liked the place, I liked Chris's work, so I think I'll go back. Although not too soon (hair styling is pricey!) So I'm happy, I like it. Of course, the true test is always the next day when it is time to fix my own hair.

In other good news (and knitting related), Amazon was not as slow as they predicted and my order showed up today! I got the Yarn Harlot's new book and Mason-Dixon Knitting. To be truthful, I've read through the first half of Mason-Dixon and I guess since I don't regularly read their blog, I'm not overly impressed or interested in the written parts of the book. They seem like smart and witty ladies, but it just isn't striking a chord with me. But that doesn't really matter anyway... it is the patterns, that's the important part. And in this, they've blown me away. Now granted, the knitted curtain... I don't think so. But no other book/magazine/website has made me think (and then say to Kevin) these two thoughts: "Wow, that logcabin blanket is so cool. I have some Noro Kureyon that would make a great blanket. I want to do that" and "Aren't those baby bibs adorable? I don't know any babies, but I bet those would be fun, quick knits. I think my cousins who are already getting Sheepy Blanket 2 and a baby sweater might have a pile of knitted goodies." I know! Blew my mind. I thought the squares blanket would be my first and only "adult" blanket. But I need a logcabin blanket, let's ignore the fact that warm weather is coming. I'm going to bring that Noro in from the trunk of my car (good place for secret knitting stash!) and start a blanket tomorrow... heck knitting gals, you might see the beginning at knitting tomorrow!

Funk lifting? Just might be...

Girl, there are really no words strong enough

To describe all my longing for love

I don't want my feelings restrained

Ooh, babe, I just need you like never before

Just imagine you'd come through this door

You'd take all my sorrow away

There's no one like you

I can't wait for the nights with you

I imagine the things we'll do

I just wanna be loved by you




Thanks for the compliments on the hair!! Y'all are so sweet!

Well, hello there neighbor. (Evidence of the level of how fried my brain is... I watched about 10 minutes of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood yesterday. And then Kevin and I made one too many jokes about Mr. McFeely). Anyway, here are kim's knitting world, we've been watching the grass grow. No, really! See that picture over there... that's our side yard. It is a mud field. It has been a mud field since we moved in 2 years ago, but the landlord never did anything about it (I think he likes it, less to mow). And it just keeps getting worse. So Kevin and I (mostly Kevin) decided to do something about it because we want to be able to hang out outside with GRASS not mud. So there was lots of raking in the fall (again mostly Kevin) and raking in the early spring. And a couple of weeks ago we put down grass seed and viola!

GRASS! This picture is actually about a week old now. The grass is coming in much better and starting to spread out. We put down some extra grass seed on Friday and hopefully with all the rain that will sprout soon too. I never thought I'd be so excited about some silly grass.

I guess if it was all about watching grass grow, I wouldn't feel so mentally drained. (Come on, watching grass grow isn't wasting brain power). But the end of the semester is like pulling teeth. I really hate the spring semester. The weather is getting nice, students don't want to be in class, I don't feel like writing any more lectures. The list of things to accomplish before the third week of May just keeps growing and growing. This past week I've been at my office all day nearly every day, not getting home until dinner time or later. Several of those days after dinner I fell asleep for a quick nap, and then have just enough energy to knit for a bit before bed. And yet, I feel like I haven't even made a dent in the to do list. Meh!

In more exciting (oh and knitting related news), it looks like we'll be heading down to Maryland on Sunday the 7th! Who is else is going?!

I'll try to get a good pic of Noro Logcabin when the sun returns!

Here's the Noro Kureyon Logcabin. This is nearly 3 skeins complete. (Someone asked in the comments... the color is the impressive #40. I wish they had names). I really like knitting with Kureyon, but as the temperatures come up, I'm going to have to find my metal size 8s because wool + bamboo + heat/humidity = blah knitting. I love watching the colors change and 18 rows of garter stitch are a snap (although starting to take much longer as the stripes grow). Unfortunately, I don't have nearly enough yarn to make an adult-sized blanket. And a Noro Kureyon baby blanket... no way! I doubt any new parent would be thankful for a hand-wash carefully blanket, and I can't stand the thought of little baby grossness all over the pretty wool. There are several possible solutions to this dilemma. 1) As Kevin suggested, it could be a wall hanging. 2) It could be a small lap blanket for cool days. 3) I could buy more Noro. Considering this Noro was stash Noro (lived in the car for 8 months), it doesn't really have a cost anymore, so the only "cost" to the blanket would be new Noro. And with a blanket, I'm not concerned with dye lots. 4) Buy a similar wool yarn in black. I was thinking colorful Noro middle, black around the edge to make it bigger. Kevin suggested reserving 2 skeins of Noro to use as a border outside of the black. I'm not sure which choice I'm going to go with, but I figure it wouldn't hurt to knit all but two skeins and hunt around at MDS&W for an appropriate addition. Oh, and just because I'm lazy and hate (HATE) turning my work, I've figured out how to purl backwards.

And I realized that you hadn't seen this guy in a while. Clearly he is much bigger than last time I showed him, when he was merely a toe. I've been dragging a bit on these socks because 1) it will be too warm for them soon and 2) the size 0s are killing my left middle finger. For some reason when I knit on tiny needles (and I don't do this with needles bigger than 3), I hold the left needle in an impenetrable death grip, which means that my left middle finger in the region between the two knuckles gets red and irritated and rubbed and dented. I did however find a magical solution the other day while waiting in the grocery store. Kevin went to find his favorite coffee beans, so I parked the cart next to the "foot care" aisle. I was looking at the various foot-related products and saw the answer to my problem. Moleskin padding. Moleskin is what you cut pieces off of and put on your foot in order to keep your shoes from giving you blisters. I thought "why can't this work on my finger" and into the cart it went. And now I can happily knit on the socks for hours (well, at least until my other hand gets cramps!).

Remember the "I hate my neighbors" post from two weeks ago. Well, here's a real life picture of the situation. (Nothing has changed otherwise). Their garage is the white one and our place is the tan one. At least they haven't added to the crap pile in a while.

Lastly for today, reasons why the knitting funk is gone:

• Can't put down the logcabin blanket.


• When I do put down logcabin, I pick up the squares for the squares blanket. I only have 6 more to knit. I actually knit one complete square during last night's Mets game.


• Very strong desire to purchase some of this. Potentially for dad's sweater.


• And everything from here. Don't click there unless you have a lot of will power. It is a British site, but they have free international shipping for orders over £40. I've tried to tell myself to save for Maryland, but I don't know if I'll make it.

Did you read this article about the sheepvertising in the Netherlands. I wonder how this effects the wool...

(To read the article, you need to log-in to the NYTimes)

{Hey kim, what's this?} Well, funny you should ask. Thursday night, Kathy showed up with 2 circular needles and 2 skeins of sock yarn and asked if I knew how to knit two socks on two circulars. And I was forced to admit that while I'd heard rumors of others successfully doing it, I myself hadn't. {Really, but you're a knitting guru!} Oh, well thank you. I wouldn't go that far, but thank you. Anyway, Friday night after a glass of red wine and slogging along on Kevin's gray-gray-gray socks, I decided I needed something more... {More wine?} No, I had a margarita instead. But I needed something colorful on slightly bigger needles. Boy, do size 0s go slowly. {You started a chunky scarf on size 15s?} No, no. I pulled out my lovely skein of Lollygirl by MamaE . {Hey, I thought that was sold out!} Yes, because I bought the last skein several weeks ago. {You suck!} Hey! Anyway, I wound it into two balls. I then started searching online for a pattern because I thought a little patterning might look good. And lo and behold I find Knitty's Straight-Laced Socks . And, look at that, they are knit at the same time on 2 circulars. {Oh, oh, and so now you know how to knit 2 socks on 2 circulars?} Sort of. The picture is all I managed since Friday night. I'm hoping that once I get an inch or two knitted that it wouldn't be so fiddly.

{On a different note, I heard you created a bit of a stir at the anti-war rally in NYC yesterday.} Haha, yes, apparently people were fascinated and befuddled by the fact that I was knitting while protesting. I got a lot of "wow, that's multi-tasking" comments. {Dumb people!} Yeah, I mean, knitting a square in stockinette is about as mindless as just standing around being annoyed at the fact that you're short, can't see, are getting sunburned, and starting to panic because of those combined with not knowing what the hell is going on. {Poor kim.} It was ok with the knitting. I did start to feel anxious, but I could at least keep my hands busy and focus on the rhythm instead of "WHY AREN'T WE MOVING?! WHAT'S GOING ON?!" {How much did you knit?} I actually, finished an entire square will waiting and marching. In fact, I went too far and had to put it away because I couldn't accurately count my rows while marching. {Yay! A peace square!}

{So kim, are you going to leave us for a week again?} I hope not! Classes are over, and while I have a lot of work to catch up on, I should hopefully have more blogging time!