Yummy Yarn

This is the first year that I haven't gone to Rhinebeck.  I have mixed feelings about it - I WANT to go, to just sit around and watch the people, to eat the tasty fair food and oogle (and buy!) yarn.  But I have so much yarn! And I would like to use my money to pay off all that student loan debt... and I'm sick. 

Still, I tried desperately to find an excuse to go.  Several friends are busy this weekend; some didn't return my texts.  Some are sick like me! I couldn't find anyone to meet up with.  I couldn't think of any books I wanted to have signed or to buy.

So, I spent the weekend at home taking it easy.  But I still wanted to get some nice yarn.

Enter this.

I ordered it from Revelations of a Delusional Knitter's online shop, here.  I got it about a week ago, but I figured I would save it for when I needed a pick-me-up.  So yesterday I opened it up and oogled the pretty yarn inside.

The colorway is Reeses, but it reminds me more of fall colors.  I think the photos capture the color really well, one of those oranges is a little more pink, but overall it's pretty good.

I can't wait to make some fall socks for myself!

I Love This Shawl!

I didn't take photos last night because when I got home, Roo came to hang out and decided to sleep on the pile of knitwear that I had left on a chair.

But, first thing this morning I took some selfies! You can tell because of my hair.  And lack of very good makeup.  I did put on lipstick! That's something.

I just love the way the yarn feels around my face.  I'm going to be wearing the heck out of this this winter, even if it isn't blocked.

Speaking of not blocked... the edges are curly and the spine isn't straight.  Usually even if I block something, the spine isn't straight, but... still!

Yeah, my project area is pretty cluttered.  I have a lot of little things to do right now, and not a lot of time.  It's funny - the cleanliness of my work area is related to how stressed I am.  The more clutter, the worse I feel.

But I have a method! I'm not allowed to take anything off the table until I've taken care of it.  So, the only way to clean it up is to work on the projects.  Which keeps me from packing things away into oblivion.

My photo-taking came to an end when Dan poked me and told me I had to eat breakfast.  I think the photo turned out kind of cute.

Poor Res Photos of My Dream Shawl!

I finished the shawl yesterday, then washed it to be blocked, and then... I made a horrible discovery. My new apartment doesn't have carpet!

Okay, this discovery isn't really new... I LOVE my hardwood floors... but where am I going to block my shawl? At my last place, I found some out of the way place and blocked it using the carpet and mastic to hold my pins, but here, I don't have that! Even before, I used homosode board from Warren's stop motion set.  I don't have that either.

I guess I'm going to have to invest in blocking mats.  I tried to use the futon cushion but the pins wouldn't go in well, and when they did they were easily pulled out.  I guess I could use the mattress to our bed, but then where would we sleep? Would Dan make that sacrifice? (Probably not.)

Still, I love this shawl.  I took it down from it's farce of a blocking spot and played with it when I got home from work, and tried to take pictures on my phone.  Of course, it's after dark, so that probably doesn't help! But here are some photos.

Tomorrow I will pull out the camera and take some REAL photos that you can actually "Oooh" and "Ahh" at. For now I have these, and some photos of my landlord's cat.  His name is Roo and I steal him sometimes when they aren't home. >_>  (Not really steal, I always send him home when I hear them come in, and I don't feed him anything or keep him overnight.  And if I thought it bothered them I wouldn't do it! I swear! I would just lie on the porch or in the stairwell and cuddle him.)

Until then... V for Victory over a shawl! Mwah.

The surgery was a success!

My Haruni shawl is back on the needles! Armed with a "repeat of chart A's worth" of yarn (can we make that a unit of measurement?) and Kitsune's tip that I can do a bind off with zero yarn left over, I'm confident that I can finish this.

I really benefitted from the fact that I'm working with Qivit, I think.  When I pulled out the needles, the yarn stuck together on it's own but still unravelled when I tugged gently on the end. 

The End is Here!!

I couldn't work on my Haruni shawl for a long, long time.  It sat in my bedroom, in it's awesome case, forlorn and alone.

But then I decided to just go for it. 

And here we are.

I knew I wouldn't be able to make it, and I was right, I didn't...

Only hope now is to frog back and make the overall shawl shorter.  I'm going to go back one repeat of the chart, and if I mess up I'm just going to wind the whole thing up into a cake and cry.

It's a dark, dismal day and I've been feeling really down. I still have a lot of stuff I need to do though, for work, sadly... It will be really fun to do but I'm setting everything up. Lately at work I have just felt like Henny Penny. People want me to do things, (things that shouldn't even be my problem, really, since they're not even remotely connected to EHS) but no one wants to lend a hand and help me do them, and when I feel overwhelmed, of course the only thing to do is work alone at home on a Saturday night.  But the feeling of getting it done will be really good, just like the feeling of finishing this scarf. 

So I'm going to do it ;) (Both the work and the knitting.)

PURPLE Caps

Despite not being able to knit too much, I've made some caps for the NH Children's Fund CLICK for Babies Campaign.  It's a campaign to prevent child abuse by educating people about the period of PURPLE crying, which is a normal stage in a baby's life where they cry a lot, a frustratingly lot.

I only made 4 caps, and one is terribly small - almost too small to donate.  But hey, maybe some super tiny baby will get it.  Who knows.  

I improvised two of the hats, but for the other two I used the Berry Baby Hat pattern.  They remind me of little eggplants! 

I failed the goal of this, which was to make a ton of hats... but 4 hats is better than nothing, and hopefully 4 little NH babies will look adorable in them.  Next year I'll get started earlier, and make the whole month of September baby hat month!

In Orbit

For the past week I've been at a conference for work, and it's been fun! Yesterday, at the closing, the person talking said "We're all in orbit now, but soon it'll be time to come back down to earth and get all this good work done back home!"

I've kind of felt in orbit.  My hands don't hurt so much (probably because I'm not using my laptop all day!)  So I've been knitting a little more.  My carousel socks are looking good!

 

I plan on doing the toe, heel, and cuff in white.  My only regret right now is not using white yarn to join the spiral.  Wouldn't it just pop like that? From what I have of yarn, though, I might be able to make another pair with the yarn that I have left over after this.  So then I'll have two rainbow socks, and maybe by then I'll be done with rainbows!

Striped Scarf

Ages, ages, and AGES ago I bought this Crystal Palace Mini Mochi yarn because I saw a beautiful project on Ravelry and wanted one too. Well, while I was sick I cast on for it.  The yarn has been in my stash for a long, long time and it finally gets it's moment! 

It knit up really quick, and the colors really look good together. I used 113 (Tropical Ginger) and 109, which I think has been discontinued. All I did was cast on 50 stitches on size 4 needles and work in a K1P1 pattern until I was out of yarn. One skein of each color like this made a scarf that was about 4.5 feet, which is a little short but I didn't really want to work in K1P1 rib anymore.

I ended up with 1 extra skein of each, and I gave them to my friend Tricia - maybe she'll make a scarf like mine! I would love to have matching scarves. It's kind of like a knit along. But not. Because they might sit in her stash forever and ever, like this yarn did.

Anyway, I love this scarf! So much that I took a selfie in it.Cherish this moment. Also, I'm not wearing any makeup because I camped all weekend.

P.S. - My new apartment has so many places to take photos of projects, haha.  Once all the pictures are up and everything is set up I will have to post photos.  I'm trying to get everything all set up but... it's been kind of slow because I tend to half-do a project and then go and watch TV with Dan.

Bird of the Summer

WOW.  It's been a long time since I've posted or blogged, sorry.  It's been a long time since I've knit, or made any progress on knitting.  My wrist has been achey and despite promising to share a table at a convention in November, I haven't really done much... at all.  That's made me a little bummed out.

But I have been going to knitting group (Tuesday nights at the Books A Million in Concord!) and so have had some itty bitty progress.  

I finished Dan's socks today.  They fit well everywhere but the front of his ankle (opposite the heel)  His foot is just so big there! I don't really know what to do - just some more experiments, I guess. But he is happy so that's a win, I guess.

I've also finished the second quarter of my afghan.  This afghan has been such a good project.  I'm kind of sad that when it's done it's just going to go into my hope chest, but I made a promise to myself so I'm going to keep it! Blerg!

That's all.  I've been working hard and watching "Friends" in my new apartment, and not really accomplishing much of anything.  A few weeks ago we hiked, but not a big mountain.  My ankle is still recovering - can you believe that? Six months and still at 99%... depressing stuff.

Hope all is well! It's hard for me to read other people's blogs, because I just feel bad about not knitting, and I get more gloomy, so I hope everyone forgives me!

Playing Chicken

So... this was originally supposed to be posted 2 WEEKS AGO... but for some reason I messed up and it didn't.  I haven't worked on the shawl since, and still need help :(

I haven't played chicken since the seventh grade, and even then I didn't really play, just watched two kids kick each other on the monkey bars. I just didn't see the point in fighting with someone for some arbitrary title of more stubborn.

But, here I am, right at the end of my shawl.  This is a point where I should be knitting furiously, excited to see what it will look like when I'm done.



Instead... I feel like I'm racing against myself.  This is all the yarn I have left!



This sucks.  I just know, deep down, that I'm going to run out.  It just depends on when.  I started out with supposedly more than enough...

So, I have three options:
1.) Knit until I run out, then finish the shawl with a contrasting color.  This is not really an optin because I don't want to do it :/
2.) Knit until I run out, figure out that limit, and then frog back a few repeats of the main lace pattern and make the shawl a little shorter.
3.) Frog back a few repeats of the center lace pattern now, and just hope that I picked enough yarn.

there is another option, I guess,  which would be to frog the entire thing back and knit something else... but I don't really want to do that.

So... what should I do? 

Hopefully I make a decision one way or another... Or it'll be like that sweater that has been neatly folded on my desk for like six months...

Biking on Plum Island

Saturday Dan and I biked up and down the Plum Island Turnpike! We though the weather was going to be bad, but it wasn't too horrible.  I managed to take some gorgeous pictures on my new phone... man.  I think it might be better than my camera!

More pictures of my boyfriend's foot

Dan picked out new yarn for new socks, after I stole his yarn for my dream socks.  I've been slowly plugging along with these during my commute, and at quiet times after work.  I can't believe I'm on the foot! That's when I realized that it's been too long since I blogged, so here I am... Giving you an update on the few stitches per day that I've been doing.

Being sick blows! (A Whiny Post)

So, I've been putting extra hours in at work.  And I work an hour from home.  So, assume I work a 10-hour day, plus two hours of commuting each way.  Then, of course, I need around 8 hours of sleep.  And an hour to get up in the morning and get ready for work (Shower, put on makeup, dress myself, pack a lunch).  What does that give me?

Three hours.  Three hours of free time.  I was griping to a coworker about this, and she said "It does seem like that sometimes, doesn't it?" 

... WHAT? Lady, it is that.  Those are the numbers.  I have 3 hours a day of "leisure time," and if I want more, I either have to work less or sleep less.

So, needless to say, I've been running myself ragged between stress and not sleeping (because, there's fun stuff to do guys!) and not really eating too well, either, and it finally all came to a head Saturday when I spent the entire day vomiting whatever went into my stomach because I had messed up my sleep schedule and made risky food choices.

I spent Sunday sleeping and trying to eat small amounts of food because the vomiting had been replaced with terrible hunger pains. I couldn't straighten my body to walk to the bathroom or even lie flat on my back, or else the cramps were so bad I would cry.

Today, I am sitting home on the couch.  I don't really have any more pain, but my brain is so dead that I'm not comfortable going to my job... because I'm working on a lot of really important (to me) things and I'm afraid of making a mistake.

Anyway, there's no point to this post other than me whining.  Sorry about that.  I think that when I started writing it, I meant to give an excuse of why I haven't been around... but all the words just started pouring out.

Things will get better soon.  Dan and I are looking for apartments that are closer to work.  I'm going to finish these projects and they will be replaced with other, less stressful projects. 

And I'm never, ever, ever going to eat a sandwich that I found in the back seat of my car again.

I Found the Rainbow!

It's on the heels! I finished the heels Tuesday, and I really like them.  They're my favorite part of the socks, actually... so much my favorite that I'm taking out the whole socks.

Yep, I'm ripping them all out and making these socks.  They're the perfect way to knit this yarn.  And it'll be a fun challenge.

But... I have to finish Dan's socks.  I pulled out all my sock yarns and gave him the pick.  He picked a really boring black and white.

Boys are weird.

Also, I have to share this.  This is where I took that picture above...

At 4 AM.  This is great advertising for my lamp that Dan bought me, haha!

Muddy Rainbow Socks

I'm making progress! Carpooling two hours each day is great, especially when you make the other person drive.  I'm making nice progress on my Haruni shawl, too!

Anyway, I put them on Dan and I'm about an inch from starting the heel flap.  Which is good, because I'm really into a new book... and I can't read an knit too intense stuff.  I can do stockinette or garter stitch fine, but anything that involves thinking just doesn't work for me.

I'm disliking the yarn more and more the more it knits up.  It pools, which is ok, but from a distance it just looks brown to me.

It makes me philosophical: every stitch is special and unique, but when all this specialness and uniqueness is put in one place the combined specialness and uniqueness just makes some ugly socks.  Okay, maybe not ugly... maybe just... a little... different...

Also, I've stitched hair into it.  #$&!%...

A Little Mid Week Pick Me Up

The orchid that Dan got me for Valentine's Day Last year has rebloomed! I trimmed the roots in mid December, and that seemed to give it new life.  I'm proud because when he showed up with the orchid, I was worried that the buds it had would die, and then that would be it - I would kill it.  But it's survived!

This, for some reason, makes me really really happy!

Dream Yarn... Dream Shawl

So, for Christmas my friend Ash gave me some AWESOME yarn.  I mean ridiculously awesome.  Qivuit sock yarn for both me and Dan, which I immediately placed on our dining room table and let sit for a few months while I decided what to do with it.

That's the best way for me to figure out what to do with yarn.  I just put it somewhere where I'll see it often, and every time I see it I think "Hmm... what should I do with this?" for a split second.  After doing this roughly thirty thousand times, I have an epiphany and suddenly discover the perfect project.

For this yarn, though, I didn't know what to make.  I didn't want to make socks - the yarn is just too soft, too nice... no, no way.  I thought about combining the two colors (red and sepia) to make a scarf.  But, no, the intent was something for me and something for Dan, so... I couldn't justify that in my head.

Finally, when I went to Kentucky, I took just the red yarn, wound in a cake.  I figured that this would finally give me the impetus to cast on some socks for myself.  BUT - when I looked for patterns, I had my epiphany.  No, I couldn't knit socks with this - I had to make a shawl.

What shawl? Well, there only seemed to be one option.  I have been eyeing the Haruni Shawl for a long time, and what better excuse to make it now!

So, I cast on for this shawl two weeks ago, and I'm already halfway done.

Maybe it's just a rebound project, while Dan's Rainbow socks sit forlorn in their little project bag, being surly.  Maybe I should work on them today...

(Also, sorry for the lack of photos! I thought I had taken some but it turns out that I never took one of the yarn when I first got it... Which is bad of me, I should have put it into my rav stash right away!)

WOW. These socks are... just... taking... FOREVER.

Does anyone want some yarn?  I think I want to burn this. 

The problem this time was that I cast on too many stitches.  I just couldn't recoup!

Maybe after a break these socks will behave... or maybe I just need the right pattern.  I'm starting to hate this yarn.  With a passion.  The color variations are so severe that normal stitch patterns don't show up, but so short that patterns that are made for varigated yarn aren't accented.  It's so horrible!

Magpie in Lexington, KY

So I travelled to a plant in Lexington to go to an awesome workshop on ergonomics.  It was really cool to see how each task is broken down and the motions are analyzed - and the Lexington area has got a lot to do and see (well, not for someone who has to sit in the hotel room and prop her leg up! :( )

The one place I made sure to check out was Magpie Yarn downtown.  It had a great selection of yarns (by color and size) and the woman there was so helpful.  Here's some pictures of the inside to get a feel of the ambience:

It makes me want to sit and knit all day. But, doesn't take much.

Anyway, I decided to buy some local Kentucky yarn - which, strangely enough, there isn't a lot of.  I got two skeins of Colors to Dye For, which are very squishy and beautiful.

This blue is for me, it's a Merino/Cashmere/Nylon blend sock yarn.  Cashmere socks.  I feel so rich!  I actually think I might make wristwarmers for these, or maybe another shawl... I broke my cardinal rule with this, which is not to buy yarn unless you have a plan for it... but it was in the spirit of tourism/supporting local business/Iwantitandit'snotlikewe'regoingtostarveifIbuythis.

I don't want to oogle over this light blue/blue/purple mix too much because I bought it for Alysia.  When I find pretty vegan yarn I like to get it for her because she can't work with animal fibers.  The colorway is "Panda" which is her fiance's pet name for her... right? Destiny!

Then this last yarn isn't Kentucky-made, but I was inspired by it.

A few weekends ago Dan and I went to a convention and he bought me a corset that was cream and this exact color yellow.  So, I can make a shawl with this that will match! At least, that's the dream.  My current pace of knitting probably makes that dream laughable, but whatever.  It's a silky smooth sock yarn from Knitted Wit, and the colorway is "Sunshine." I actually think I might design with this yarn, a first for me in like 6 months.  

Ugh, it's been six months since I finished Moby and I still don't have the pattern up :'(

Red Right Ankle

Okay, so it's my left ankle, but whatever. 

Saturday I fell on ice and twisted my ankle really bad.  One of the ligaments is torn.  The picture above was from last night - today the area is still swollen, though not as bad.  It is all yellow and there is a black spot blossoming in the center.

On top of that, I'm travelling for work.  So pain + homesickness + overwork = grumpy.

Thankfully it's not broken. My life would be so miserable right now if it was.

I have some happier, knitting-related posts coming up!

Finished! Flexible Flirtation Cowl

So, I finished this a while ago but I've been trying to take photos of it.  It's very comfy and fluffy, but... I don't look good in it.  But it's comfy! And actually, it wasn't that horrible to knit with, either.  I would work with this yarn again, maybe to make a fluffy stuffed monster.  It makes a great fabric.

Anyway, it's a flexible cowl because I knit it on larger needles, and the buttons fit through the stitches instead of any set button holes.  So you can button it any way you want.  I found four:

I guess if you wanted to add a fifth style you could twist it and make it a mobius cowl.  I'm sure there are more!

So, I packaged it up and will send it off when I get around to the post store... hopefully tomorrow.  I feel like I have had no time to myself lately.  It was very calming to sew up the package on my sewing machine.

Perfect Buttons

Dan and I went into JoAnn's the other day to get buttons for my cowl.  He told me "I have memorized where everything is in JoAnn's, because everytime we go you go looking for things... but really that's just an excuse to browse the store."

He caught me.

It still took me fifteen minutes to find the perfect buttons. He even helped me!

I'm a lucky person.

Christmas Yarn

I normally don't like it when people give me yarn.  It's usually not my style, or not enough to make a good project out of, or just uninspiring.  But over Christmas, my old art teacher RB gave me this bag:

It's got a ton of goodies! This multicolor mystery yarn:

A bag of this stuff:

A PILE of recycled Sari yarn that I spent the afternoon untangling last weekend.  It was so calming to do that, seriously. 

(Before pile)

(After cake)

And then there is this: "Flirtation."  

Normally, I would call this yarn "icky looking" but it's so soft and squishy.  I knit some of it up, and couldn't stop.  So I'm making an easy garter stitch cowl.  I have a plan and everything - the loops on the yarn are so big (because I'm working on US 13 needles) that small buttons can fit through them - so no buttonholes!  If I  put some buttons on the end, she'll be able to fasten the cowl in a few different ways.  

I'm really excited to make this!

Sweater Disaster

So, I was really really proud to finish my first sweater!

But... as you might notice... it's not really finished.  I picked up the exact number of stitches, but it looks like the button band has too few of them, because this weird scrunching thing happens.

This is probably the most unflattering thing that has ever been draped upon my figure.  All of the endorphins from sewing the last button on disappeared when I looked at myself in the mirror.  Instead of a beautiful form swathed in beautiful handknit goodness, I felt like a potato in a too-big potato sack.  I have lost weight since I started knitting it, so it might just be way too big... but I would at least like to have the bottom form a straight line!

Anyway, this thing is in time out until I get the gumption to unravel the button band, cast on with more stitches, and try again.

If Only the Force was With Me...

Does this look like a Princess Leia inspired hat? I'm not really that happy with it... but, whatever, the Dalek came out great!

That makes two pretty big flubs for me this week, the second one being a sweater disaster that I still need to blog about.  I'm starting to feel like most of my blog posts are about problems I'm having! I REALLY am good at knitting... I swear! 

I think my main problems were: 

1.) I made it up as I went along instead of just using one of the many patterns on the internet.

2.) When I sewed the little buns on, I didn't have an orange or grapefruit to use as a gauge of a baby head, so I have no way to tell if they are wonky or not. I just have the sneaking suspicion that they are!

Rainbow Socks are Dead. Long Live Rainbow Socks!

Yep.  I took the time today to try to make the right heel.  It didn't work, and I decided that maybe I would change the way I was approaching these socks.  Maybe top-down socks will work... and maybe doing them two-at-a time will help me finish them quicker. 

I also might not do simple stress socks this time... I might do an actual sock pattern, but I have to find one. 

Pudgy the Curious Dalek

I finished him! There were a few hiccups, but I kind of like it. 

First, I worked a jogless round because there's color work in the body and neck.  But because of them, the start of the round had moved about an inch and a half! So, the eyes are kind of at an angle from where they are supposed to be.  I don't mind it though, because he kind of looks like he's just turning his head.  I think he looks slightly curious.  Like he's hearing someone talking and is listening in, turning his head just a little bit.  And he catches you looking - but instead of looking away bashfully, or turning all the way towards you to engage in conversation, he just freezes.  "Uh... uh..."  Then you have to make the move.

Oh man, I am way too attached to this doll.  I gotta send it away! Stop being adorable, Pudgy!

Anyway, I really like the pattern.  I would make it again, as another gift for a Dr. Who fan.  I know so many! And now that I've made one, I feel like I can make another even more efficiently.  Aside from catching the whole start of the round mess-up, I plan to:

1.) Place a coffee can lid or some other circular object in the bottom to keep it flat.  

2.) Knit the bottom as a flat circle and then work my way up, finishing at the top.  I totally know how to do that!

3.) Use stitch markers to mark where you decrease during the leg-ish section (where the bobbles are).  I did that this time and it worked really well!

Anyway, I had fun knitting this and I'm pumped to call it my first FO of 2014 :)

Sunday Hike

I got a pair of snowshoes for Christmas, with the intent to keep hiking all through winter. I haven't been able to climb a mountain yet (too much ice!)... but we did check out a great trail right in the city.

The snow was awesome... and halfway through, we crossed a gorgeous little brook.  It was like a picture.

The snow had covered everything.  It's very sticky!

So that's my calm to keep me going through this week! I am getting knitting done... I just need to find my camera so I can photograph it.

25%

This weekend, on the way home from NY, I finished the first quarter of my blanket!

In celebration, I decided to do some tidying.  My project bag was a mess...

So I wound up all the skeins that I had finished.

Then I packed up my bag with everything that I needed to work on my project at knitting group.  Because it's such an easy pattern that's all garter stitch, I think it's great social knitting.  I also brought the finished panel... to show off my progress.  At this rate, I might finish it this year! ... Or not.  Probably not.

Knitting for a Nerdy Baby

I've known this for a while, but my friend from college is pregnant! With a little girl! Their nursery is "nerd themed" so I've been really inspired to make lots of cute things for them.  I figured I would post my list of ideas so that I would be able to come back to it.

1. A knit Dalek.  I'm actually working on this one, and it's going really well!
2. A star trek inspired baby cardi.  I have red yarn, and can embroider a little symbol on the front... so it will be a baby red shirt!! (As cool as this is, I mentioned ST to her and they're not really trekkies, so I'll save it for another time.)
3. A baby jayne hat - though I know if Dan sees me knitting this he'll want one :P
4. A little princess leia hat.
5. Actually, a little leia outfit would be cute! And it would be easy.
6. A knit Bantha - OMG SO CUTE!!!!1ONE  I would pay for this pattern.
7. She mentioned a knit tardis.  But that's too easy! Maybe a Tardis diaper genie cover? Hmmm.
8. A baby-sized little jedi costume.
9. I want to do a blanket out of all these - but in yellow and green, because she told me ages ago that she liked those two colors.   That just screams "Waaaayyyy too ambitious" though... right? No... yes.  No... yes... stop!
10. A wookie doll.  Here's a crochet one, but I would make a knit one.  Too bad, I just gave away a bunch of hideous fun fur that would have looked good like this!
11. A stuffed ewok! I couldn't find a pattern for one, but they would be easy to do.
12. A little ewok cowl/hat - here's a crochet version, it would be easy to make a knit one.

Anyway, those were just rattling in my head, I had to get them out! Have a good Sunday!

Saggy Heels - What do I do?

I'm kind of blown away by how big Dan's sock is.  It's as long as my forearm!

I wasn't sure what kind of heel to make, so I went with an afterthought heel because I have LOVED how they feel on me.  So, I knit away at this new afterthought heel, and I kitchnered it up...

And it's too big! :(

It's baggy, saggy, and gross! I'm not quite sure what to do, since it's definitely the right number of stitches for the gusset.  Maybe a radial decrease? Can you do that?  My thought is "I don't see why not" but I really would rather do something that's been done before before I try to un-vent something.

2013 Recap

Lots of people have been posting summaries of what they've finished in the last year, so I thought it would be fun to do!

Then, I looked at my finished photo set... and felt me ego shrink a little.  Here are my finished projects from 2013:

Only 9.  But I'm pretty proud of them! I worked on my Rock Island Shawl for almost 2 years, and I've almost finished my first sweater for myself.  And my House Greyjoy Needlepoint... anyway.  I might not be as prolific as other bloggers, but I think my FO's are still pretty badass.