Grey day, new sock

Over the past little while I have been playing with my pattern charting software, coming up with possible sock designs.  I like knitting patterns that only involve knits and purls – no lace, no crazy cables and no charts so dense with symbols it looks like somebody spilled a bucket of them.  I like my socks knitting to be interesting, but not too difficult.  Socks are usually my travel knitting, so I want to be able to knit them while chatting.  I want it to be a nice relaxing knit, that looks good when it’s done.  I want a pattern that is at least somewhat intuitive, and has a bit of that “Just one more round/repeat/etc!’ element to it. This has been my theme while working on these sock designs.  My first couple of attempts were less than spectacular.  Sometimes what looks awesome on paper looks like ass once knitted.  Who knew?  However, this pattern is coming off the paper and into shape nicely.

And I’m loving the orange yarn.  As you know if you’ve been by here in the winter before, I have a raging need to knit something bright come January/February.  If I want grey I’ll just look outside thanks. Yep, even the project bag is bright.

I don’t have a name for this pattern yet. Sometimes they come to me fully realized, name pattern, the whole thing, thank you Muses. Others are more of a struggle and need to be ripped half formed out of my head and forced onto the paper. This one was like that. I always have trouble with names in that case. Joey suggested Volcano, or Fourth Gear not Not Meshing with Primary (motorcycle geek, what can I tell you). I’m thinking This End Up. Or maybe Gnash, since it kinda looks like teeth? Yeah, that’s fun right? I’ve wanted to name a pattern Smash, mostly because it’s fun to say. Also, I want to have this conversation: “What are you knitting?” “Smash!” hehehehe. Oh come on, wouldn’t you love to go around answering people’s questions (especially the stupid ones) with “SMASH!” I’m pretty sure that would be a good day.

Ok, back to the socks for me!  But here’s some Juno to keep you warm.

Waffles, anyone?

As posted yesterday, I have finished my Christmas socks.  I like to make myself a pair of socks after all the Christmas knitting/crafting/shopping/etc is done, it’s nice to have something soothing (and controllable) over the holidays.  Joey bought me the yarn for these last Christmas – it’s Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in the Zombie BBQ colour way.  Yes, the name most certainly did influence me, but they are a great colour too.

I don’t know about you, but my knitting queue is about 400000 km long.  Just before I started these I came across a picture on Ravelry  of a pair of socks, all knit in the same yarn, but a different pattern used for each sock.  Genius!  The two patterns had enough in common that the overall effect was harmonious rather than “Uh… did you get bored after the first one?”  I had a couple of patterns in my queue with the word “Waffle’ in the title – surely, I figured, they would look of together?  Indeed, in this case you can barely tell them apart!  But there is a subtle difference, and I think it’s funny to have two different socks even if no one else ever notices.

The paterns are as follows – the top sock is the Blueberry Waffle Socks pattern, and the bottom one is Waffle Rib. I used Cat Bordhi’s short row heel to prevent pooling, and my own regular toe.

Joey was nice enough to help with the pictures. Of course, since I was sitting on the floor, Juno helped too.

Start it up

What is it with the new year that makes everyone want to start everything, right NOW?  I have read blog posts, had conversations and myself fallen prey to Startitis, that most insidious of all creative maladies.  The only thing worse, of course is writer’s block, which, you may know, can happen to anyone, but has been accredited to writers; aren’t they lucky?  Do not confuse a bout of Startitis with your Muse.  The Muse will bring you wonderful ideas, and command you to start on them.  Startitis has nothing to do with the ideas being good, and everything to do with starting about 12 967 464 projects, ripping your house apart looking for supplies, buying supplies, trashing your work area, leaving started projects randomly over the house as you flit from one thing to the next and demanding to know where all the scissors are until your mate is tearing out his hear, your dog is hiding out under the table covered in marker and your kid is eating cookies and glitter because you forgot about dinner.  Startitis is a term I most often hear in relation to knitting, but at Joey’s House can be applied to pretty much anything creative.  There has been a lot of  ”oooh, I want to make THAT!” in the past week.  What I’ve been making has varied from bracelets to robot drawings to mittens.

There were supplies purchased for the beady bracelets

One bracelet has been completed, but Punky has absconded with it and it has vanished into the vortex that is her room.  More are planned for tomorrow.

Mittens have, (shocking!) almost been finished.

Sharpies were in use for another thing when robot inspiration struck.

Wee socks for Jack were started late last night.

Socks for a new project I am working on for y’all were started this morning. (It involves new patters!  Stay tuned!)

And then… this came in the mail just after I started those orange socks.

Hmmm… wonder if I have time to wind it before Punky gets home?

Oh, wait I did finish something! My Christmas socks! Look!

Now, where are those scissors?

First FO of 2012

Hello! Happy New Year! Did you survive the holidays? Or, like me are you still surviving them, since Punky doesn’t go back to school for another 4 days?
Despite all the other things going on right now I did manage to get some knitting done – my first thing started and finished in 2012. Socks! Well, I didn’t say it was a really original thing. They are a bit different than my regular socks though, in that they are knit from sport weight yarn (that’s how I got them done so quickly!). I got the kit from Solitude Wools after seeing this blog post.  Loved her socks.  yeah, I got sucked in, what of it?  Socks in 4 days, I’m happy.  Actually, happy enough that I am considering doing more of these for Christmas gifts next year.  I think I will pick out my own colours rather than buying a kit though.  The wall of Cascade at my LYS should provide enough colours to have fun with.  Yeah, I like to plan ahead.

But for now, pictures!  Do you know how annoying it is to get a good shot of your own feet?

A good day to fall in love

On Saturday night something special happened.  We went to bed as our normal selves, but woke with new titles. On Sunday we made a trip to meet someone very important.

Auntie Heather, Uncle Joey and Cousin Punky would like you to meet Jack.

Don’t ever let anyone tell you there is no such thing as love at first sight.  They are clearly delusional.

 

I have caught up to myself

New sock design in progress

Originally uploaded by heatheratjoeyshouse

After knitting about 2/3 of a sock for Joey using my own design I decided it was not working out in the yarn I had chosen. After another false start I have finally figured out what it should look like and am catching up to where I was when I ripped it. A morning of knitting at the remote office has helped. Still hoping to have them done for Christmas – possibly wishful thinking or just outright delusion on my part.

Friday food and gift thought

Are you in a rush and wishing for a quick, comforting meal before braving the Christmas crowds/driving your kids to the next thing/attempting to clean up your house?Are you looking at your Christmas list, staring at the name of that impossible to buy for person, wishing for a genius idea?

I have a solution to both dilemmas.

Soup.

Soup is comforting, warm, filling and often quite healthy.  It can take all day to make, which on a slow Sunday can be fine.  This soup, however takes less than an hour, is hearty and filling, and doesn’t contain anything wacky – you may have what you need to make it already.  Take a look.

Corn Chowder

2 Tbsp butter or olive oil

1 onion, finley dicecd

2 celery stalks, finely diced

2 carrots finely diced

1 tsp flour

3 cups milk (whole, 1%, whatever you have.  Throw in some cream if you have that.)

2 large potatoes

1 cup chicken broth.  Or vegetable broth if you want to make it vegetarian.  Or water if you’ve no broth.

Thyme or Herbs de Provence

1 bay leaf

2 cobs corn, roasted, or an equivalent amount of frozen corn, either roasted or straight from the freezer

Salt and pepper

Bit of grated cheese

• In your favorite soup pot, melt the butter.
• Add the veggies and sweat them (meaning don’t let them brown) for a few minutes.
• Sprinkle the flour over the veg (to avoid lumps).  Cook and stir for 1 minute.
• Slowly add the milk while stirring.
• Chop one of the potatoes and toss it in the soup.  Grate the other potato directly into the soup.  No, you don’t have to peel them.
• Add the broth, herbs, corn and salt and pepper.
• SIMMER until the potatoes are cooked through.  You really don’t want to boil this or it can curdle.
• Remove the bay leaf.
• Serve hot with some good bread or crackers and a sprinkle of cheese on top if you like.

Now, you’re thinking, that’s great, I’ve got dinner figured out – what about that gift idea?  Think of this – what’s better than making a big pot of soup for dinner?  Having someone else make it of course!  Make up a batch of this or your favourite soup, slap it into one of those festive plastic containers you can get now, stick a label on it and slap it in the freezer.  Pick up a box of fancy crackers and voila!  An awesome present for your super busy friend, your favourite student, your brother who can’t cook, ANYONE!  I’m a stay at home mom, I do have time to cook, but I would love to get this gift – because everybody likes a break from cooking.    This recipe makes a decent potful, but if you make a double batch you’d have enough for your dinner and some to freeze.  Dinner and a gift all in one – genius I tell you.

I didn’t make these…

Punky did.  Her welding skills are much better than mine.

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I did finish up some knitting over the weekend, but it is a surprise for a little gathering I am hosting next weekend, so no pictures yet.  I’m going to be perusing my cookbooks and favourite foodie sites over the next couple of days looking for a good munchie/appetizer to have at the party – any suggestions?  It has to be vegetarian, but dairy is ok.

That’s it for this wee post, I’m off to tea and some sock knitting with a friend.  I’m hoping to get Joey’s socks done before Christmas this year – he usually gets New Year’s socks, poor boy.  Think I’ll make it?

Yes, that is the first sock. Why?

Today’s Christmas craftiness

Wow, I am on a roll with getting things made this week!  It’s making me really happy to be able to cross stuff off my list.  Today I finished up the gift for Punky’s teacher, and for my family’s gift exchange.  Actually, not only the gift, but the wrapping too!

I mixed up jar-sized batches of popcorn seasoning mixes from recipes that I found on line.  All of the recipes I found seem to only make enough for one or two batches of popcorn.  Much easier to make up a big batch and have it in a handy shaker I think.  I chose three different flavours and went to work mixing up dry spices.  Even if you think of yourself as not crafty/not artsy/not able to cook you can do this.  You’re just dumping dry spices into a bowl, mixing them together and then transferring them into a jar.  It took me a few minutes to figure out how much I would have to make to fill two jars of each flavour, but the actual mixing and packaging probably took all of ten minutes.  Easy fast and fun, just what holiday gifts should be!  Of course, you know my obsession with good packaging – I had to make up some fun labels to go on the jars.  No fancy sticker sheets required (sorry Staples) for the labels – regular paper and a decent glue stick work great.

Now, for the wrapping.  Yesterday I went over to Len’s Mill, our local fabric/yarn/never know what else shop.  It’s a good place to go for fabric of the type I was looking for, which would be cute and cheap.  I didn’t feel the need to spend a ton on gift bag fabric.  Len’s carries some of the fancy brands, but if you walk past those shelves you’ll find more shelves piled high with less expensive fabrics.  Some are good quality, some not so much.  It’s always a mess, but fun to dig through.  A small amount of poking rewarded me with this fun green print – looks kind of like candies, right?

All four bags took me about half an hour to make.  I had a half metre of fabric, so I just folded it in half lengthwise,and then cut a 10 inch wide piece for each bag.  The last bag is a bit bigger as there were about 13 inches left after three 10 inch cuts.  It’s a gift bag – who cares?  I have a little tutorial here if you want instructions to make your own super quick bags. I love projects like this where you use up very bit of the supply you bought for it, I have enough craft stash!

Finally, a continuation of yesterday’s purple theme.

Remember RedBear?  Well, his sweater was a big hit.  Punky hasn’t requested any clothes for him this year, but I think she’ll like that he has pants that match hers. On his part, RedBear was very patient with me as I had to try his pants on him a couple of times to make sure I wasn’t messing them up too badly.  Unlike his best friend RedBear has limitless patience.