This post has lots of tags mainly because this has been a busy weekend for me. A good kind of busy too and that makes me feel immensely satisfied; isnt that how we all should feel at the beginning of the week?

On the knitting front: Mariah sleeves finally got more attention and I am almost thru the second repeat of the cable, this time I remembered to do the blasted increases! It is easy to knit and memorise, even if it is cables. I am still in love with this red yarn and I cant wait until its a sweater I’m going to finish this sleeve and then CO the back. I think that I might go faster with the stockinette stitches and not feel so slow. Most likely though I will do the second sleeve so I can have 2 matching.

The PNW Shawl got plenty of attention too and I just finished another 4 rows before blogging and got 8 done over Friday and Saturday. This is coming up beautifully in the Anne and I couldnt be happier with the color. Wether or not I ever attempt a lace project remains to be seen. I just dont know if it is worth it for daily wear. For my special day however, I will knit just about anything!!!

I CO a sock in Juneau (Glacier by Cider Moon) and yesterday I got my box with 2 skeins of their Habanero colourway and another of Juneau. Why so much Juneau? Because I want this pair to be knee socks. One of the Habanero is for P’s socks and the other is for J (who LOVES his European Waffles!) I swear that I am adding more to than I am knitting from my stash for the LnV marathon! I’m too scared to count what I have now (and what I will add from Scout in 2 weeks) and I think that I will hold off and not buy ANYTHING else until at least August. You are my witnesses. No more yarn until after the wedding! I am going to CO P’s socks today because I want to get those done by May 1st or so.

Springtime in Sitka really is beautiful. The trees have started to sprout again and though nothing has turned that beautiful “new green” colour yet, the moss ON the trees has and that looks pretty too. New grasses are coming up and the daffodils are getting ready to pop. It has been quite windy here the past 3 days and will be for the next 3 if the Marine forecast is anything to go on. Its funny to realise that once you start dating a fisherman you no longer trust the weatherman on the TV rather, your trusted source is the computerised voice that comes over the NOAA channel.

No special plans for Easter here because it is a regular workday for me but I did get up earlier than normal and get in a 2 mile run at the school gym and did arm weights, leg lifts and crunches.

Hope you have a Happy and Blessed Easter!

Thank you so much to everyone who sent me well-wishes and speedy healing thoughts! I thought that I was superwoman and would be up and back at work on Thursday…Um, nope. I slept more than half that day away and was too sore to be up and moving for more than 30 mins at a time. Friday started much better and I was thinking that I could possibly get away from the couch or sitting down all the time and I did do a bit better. I was feeling “swimmy” (you know the way the movies portray a person on drugs? That wavy, watery, swimmy feeling that the person always experiances? Thats what I mean) And this was without the drugs. Just trying to be normal. Anyway, J made me lie down and while I was hoping to get thru the day without a nap, I ended up sleeping for 3 hours and waking up feeling so much better. Last night I took some more of the “good” drugs and they really space me out and make me want to veg, zone and sleep. I woke up today and was feeling a LOT better and dont feel like I did too many crunches…just like I did just enough to feel. And sometimes feel like something was ripped out thru my bellybutton…naturally Nothing tastes good to me and for the first time in my life, I just dont want to eat anything. Yesterday, J made halibut with Teriakki sauce and mashed potatos and it was the first thing that actually smelled good and I wanted. I had a few bites of both and was done. Today, I had some fruit and an iced coffee and a bit of bagel. I didnt and dont want anything else. Food just is not appealing in any way. Not the best way to lose weight and I will talk to my doctor on Monday.

I am painting a room in J’s dads house for the BRAND-NEW TWINS!!! J’s step-mom just gave birth to twin boys on Wednesday and my gift to them is a painted baby’s room in a beautiful creamy yellow, seafoam green and this really cool colour called “Inchworm” for the contrasting trim. The moving and stretching is JUST enough for me to feel good and the fact that I am here in the house makes it easy for me to sit down and relax when I get to feeling swimmy again. The family will be back from Anchorage/Palmer the Monday after Easter and the room should be done and fume free by then.

Why fume free? Because the weather has been so beautiful and sunny and warm and I have been able to leave the windows open all day long. Why is it like this? Not because of any weather pattern but because I have needed to be lying down all day! Thank goodness for the windows and wind-blocking houses.

My Lola socks have become my “Sheer Gall” socks. With that stripe of neon green, they just scream impudence to me I started them just as I was starting to have pains and finished them as I was recovering making the name just perfect. I will post pics tomorrow or Monday along with my pattern for them. This brings my “milage” (more like yardage) to 730+ yards down for the LnV marathon. Good thing they extended the date to July 15th…maybe I can establish a goal for myself by then too

Sometimes ‘ole MN is quite psycotic…and I mean this in the nicest way. Friday and Saturday were lovely and warm, cloudy but warm. Today it is snaining (snow + rain = snain). Slippery, slushy and nasty. It was lovely out earlier and smelled of spring.

Herring season is almost upon us and it is a beautiful thing. There are Seiner all in the harbor and Packers, erm, packed in too I love this time of year if only because of the bald eagles that abound. I counted 50 on Thursday and that was just coming over the bridge to the school. Granted, the seagulls are flocking like crazy too but that just makes me smile. J always smiles when I oohh and aahh over the eagles and make a fuss about seeing so many around. I point them out when we travel and have to force myself to focus on the road when I see them driving. I hope that I can live here for years and years to come and still feel wonder over these beautiful things and times of the year.

Lola Saga: Ok, so I thought that I would have them done and I would have…if I didnt have to stop and frog them both. I didnt have to frog them because they would have fit OK but I didnt want OK, I wanted perfect. I did my first short row heel and I cant wait to see how they fit. (Hopefully they do!!) I have never made or worn SRH yet. Not too bad There is just one thing that makes me groan when I look at the socks and really, it leaves me in a bit of awe. They are knit exactly the same way. On the same size needles. With the same number of stitches. I just have to smile and shake my head when I look at them. Part of me wants to rip the “slow striped” one out and the other part loves them both. How simple am I that *that* is what makes me happy. I dont think that I am going to get far up the leg with this skein of Lola and am taking care to knit only a few rows before switching socks and knitting the other about .5″ beyond the 1sts point. I am liking this pair of socks and am having fun messing about with the ribbing. Its kinda my own pattern of ribbing and is modeled after my fave pair of commercial woollen socks. Its meant to hug my feet and hopefully it does just that.

MN has gotten more crazy as I typed this…about 15 mins from start to finish and is all out snowing. Big fat flakes and quickly falling but not yet sticking.

*ETA: Pictures of a Seiner and 3 packers! Sorry about the snow…MN at large!*

Ok, not really. I ordered from Sheri not more than 5 days ago and its here today! I was kinda crushed at first when I checked the mail today because there was no box. I looked in the mail room and there was no box there either. I really wanted to show P the yarn because I know that he wants to make an order of Cider Moon for himself. No so much because he is a knitter but because he wants me to make him something! We agreed that my “payment” for knitting him something would be him buying his skein and then buying me one of my choice for myself. OK by me!!! Anyway, he went home from work early and didnt get to see the BOX that was waiting for me in my ROOM!!! Not only did I get this beautiful Glacier in Juneau : I highly suggest that everyone takes a look at this picture. This IS the colour of this yarn (of course, YMMV if you dont have the same Mac monitor ) I really like it. Those greens and purples really get me, especially when mated with blues.

But I became a member of Loopies Groupies!!! Yes, I realise that this means that I have a problem. You only can join this elite group if you have placed 6 or more orders with the Loopy Ewe and as this order of Glacier took me to 6, I got in! We wont talk about how I was going to buy another few skeins today…especially after I saw that she has Cookie A’s patterns. I really want to make Rhiannon. Really really really. But there is no way I am buying 8 skeins of Louet Gems in FINGERING weight. Thats $62 just for the yarn. $68.50 with the pattern. Um…I dont think so. Beautiful and such an amazing piece of work but I would be so scared to wear them and I actually think that I would get tired of knitting them. I think that I will get the pattern and try to make it my own by doing it in sportweight. ANYWAY…Sheri gifted me with an awesome bag, skein of Opal 6 in blues, greys, a bit of teal and black and Dove chocolate. This bag couldnt have come at a better time because I was thinking of needing to buy a new plastic box to contain all my sock yarn. I LOVE IT! Thank You Sheri!

I have decided to chronicle the Lola Autumn of the Sea saga with an update every few days. It might go even faster than a few days because this is knitting up pretty fast. I am creating my own pattern and trying a new style of knitting by knitting from both ends of the ball of yarn AND doing it toe up AND AND I’m gonna give short-row heels a try. I’m not quite to that point but I plan on using SKS to do it. I might get through the cuff and switch to a different yarn because I KNOW this single skein wont be enough for a pair of socks tall enough for J. SO…if anyone out there bought this Lola from The Loopy Ewe and has access to a good LYS or know of a match for ANY of the colours in it, I would LOVE to hear from you. Here is a picture of where I stand thus far: This doesnt give the colour justice and it really is a bright, bright, almost neon of everything. I love how fast this is knitting up and I really think that I might have a full pair of socks by next Sunday. Granted, that is only if I dont touch the Mariah or the PNW shawl and I dont think I can do that.

J came in Thursday Night!!! It was such a fantastic weekend for me and I feel so refreshed. Normally I feel kinda blah, even after my weekends but today, WOW! I am so ready for the rest of the week. J and I talked about future jobs for me, wedding ideas and dates, and general together stuff. Friday, we went to a party with P and some other friends (YAY! J and P met!) and J actually sang with Kareoke Revolution and then on Saturday, we went to see the comic Kermit Apio. J turned to me part way through and said, “Home-run idea”. He had been a little unsure of going to see a comic because a)it was our last night together for about a month and b)his fishing friends wanted to go out. I agreed to first go to the comic then go out with his friends as long as we weren’t going to over drink. We LOVED the comic, went home to wait for P to call and then ended up going to bed to snuggle. It was a good thing that no friends called. Of course, we work up before the alarm rang at its ungodly hour and talked and snuggled more. It was so nice to just be together. We actually did very little running around and just enjoyed hanging out and being in the room with each other. Yes, we are dorks…boring dorks at that.

And I found another reason why I love this man. I told him about the skein of Cider Moon Glacier in Juneau that I bought and he said, Yeah, I figured you would but I love my socks so I wont say anything. He actually encouraged me to BUY MORE! I think that either he has forgotten the side of the couch that is taken up or he is just being nice for leaving me again. Either way, I have set my goal for the Lime and Violet sock yarn marathon: To knit J 3 more pairs of socks. He has 2 pairs now so I am thinking that I want him to have 5 pairs of handknit socks. Generally, when he fishes he is gone for 5 days or so before them come back in and then goes out again. This process repeats until all the IFQ is caught but either way, if he is out, I want him to think of me Handmade socks would be a perfect way to do this. Warm toes, warm heart and all that. Not only have I become a “Loopy Groupie” but I am going back to buy more. *sigh* Thats OK…thats why I sub instead of taking Fridays off.

I was so rudely awakened at 830 this morning by a ringing phone. I had stayed up late to finish J’s sock, talking with B and P and was SO tired. It is now noon and I would havent exchanged that phone call for a million hours of sleep. It was J! He was about 30 min out and would be docking up directly across the channel from the school and selling the first 2 sets of fish they caught. They ended up leaving the last set out there because they caught so many one the first 2 that they couldnt fit anymore on the boat! Talk about fantastic timing on those socks. I washed them in conditioner last night and they were partially dry when he called so I set the hairdryer on them Here they are last night with the lovely toes. There is no way in he11 I would have ripped them back. In the future, with this yarn, I’m going to make a shorter ribbed cuff. The leg is the perfect length and if J didnt have such long feet, I would have had enough yarn!

Details: European Waffle Socks
Yarn: Euro Yarns in Nepal 63-785
Pattern: Waffle stitch of *K2 for 2 rds, K2P2 for 2 rds*, Heel flap and my standard reductions for the toe.
Needles: KP’s #1 circs (2)
I cast on 68 stitches and that was perfect fit around the ankles and up the calves. I can see how easy it will be to increase for knee socks.

Now all I need is the yarn for it I just found Cider Moon Glacier in Juneau. Sheri just started offering it at the Loopy Ewe and there was no way I could pass up a yarn called ‘Juneau’ Part of me really wants to buy more and more and the other part of me wants to wait. But there is that huge part that wants lots and lots of pairs of knee socks.

*blush* Maybe I should make one pair to start with.

Ever notice how good you feel after a workout but how jittery you get if you dont? Its kinda what I would expect a junkie would feel without their fix. I had, ahem, chosen, to take some time off from working out…Ok, more like I was too lazy to do anything…and just got back into my running/weights cycle yesterday. Felt awesome and, though I didnt go as long as I did a month ago, still did a mile and a half. Yay me! And then today, I walked into town (about .5 mile) and back. That was it. I am so jittery right now, you have no idea. I am kinda scared to try to knit anything because I am scared of how it might come out I have volunteered to drive the van for the school swim class to the pool every day and the really good thing about that is the GYM that is at the same place. Now, I can go in and get in a workout while they are having their class. Maybe I can even get in a pool session which is something I never thought I could live without. Class is 80 mins long, including drive times so I think that I will have about 45 mins which is totally OK with me, it just means that I have to be focused. And I know they will pick on me if I am just sitting in the van. I can get in a quick shower and though I still have to work for the rest of the night, this will be the perfect energiser for me. Workouts pump me up…which is another reason why I cant go run now to relax…it just wont work.

I am so scared that I am going to run out of yarn for the 2nd of J’s socks. I am in a push to finish it before he comes in this first time from longlining for black cod. It would be a great surprise present, even though I swore that I wouldnt give him another pair until he found the first…WHICH HE LOST!!! There are a limited number of places where they could be so I am not too worried. Either way, I dont know that I will have enough yarn and that would totally sucks because these are cuff down and there is no well in hades that I will rip them back. He was laughing at someone elses blog when they blogged about having to do that. His solution? Just knit the toes in another yarn. No one sees your toes anyway. It will serve him right for laughing if he ends up with blue toes on this pair! It will be good to get this pair done. Even though I know I cant “win” the LnV marathon (which they extended to July), I still want to get through as much as I can. I was feeling *smile* whelmed by my stash the other day and still want to reduce it by a few…though I think this feeling was brought about by the 9 skeins of red Mariah yarn pyramid-ed up next to the nice, neat plastic box of sock yarn.

I just put on J’s 1st and 2nd socks…um. yeah. those toes will be different…oops.

ETA: I thought I actually posted that post but I guess not! Therefore, this is gonna be a long one After examining the finished sock and the yarn left over, I have deduced that I will be short by the final reduction rows (2) and the bind off. So close yet so far. P laughed at me and then suggested that I make J’s socks have a hot pink toe. I would too, if I thought for an instand that he would even comment on it! J is just not that type of guy. Seriously, he chose THIS yarn for himself for socks. It is very pink and I dont think that I would wear it. He LOVES it. Loves it. I still look at the yarn and wonder what he was thinking. The gist of it is that he doesnt care. As long as its comfy and warm, he is all for it, whatever IT is I love that nothing phases him and that he is so happy-go-lucky about most things. He does worry about fishing and making money for our family, but what guy doesnt?

On that line, what is your definition of “family”? Even though we have yet to get honestly legally married (darn IRS and backtaxes!), most people refer to J as ‘hubby’ and everyone knows that we are together. We live together, share all expenses and plan together for the future. We talk about how we are to save for the next 2 years before we start trying for children and the travelling that we want to do before said kids. We only make decisions together, especially when they will impact us in a big way. He asks my permission to leave me to go fishing for heavens sake! In my mind, we are a family unit. To him, though all the above is true, we arn’t a real family until we have kids. He doesnt like my arguments about childless couples and maintains that pets dont count as kids, furbaby isnt a word and family means children. *sigh* At least I can say it here. Its not that I want to change his mind, I just want to know what the general consensus is. What with the changing of family units due to divorce and an aging population, I really dont know. In my mind, we are a family simply because family means love, caring and unconditional support for the person, if not always their choices. Granted with this definition my “family” is pretty darn huge but I am OK with that

I am so excited! I learned how to kitchener stitch FINALLY! I read a fantastic tutorial and then I watched the video on knittinghelp.com and that God, the technique finally sunk in. It only took 4.5 pairs to grasp this idea. So before I learned, I did this: I know what you are thinking, ‘That looks horrible and cant possibly feel smooth.’ Yes to the first but suprisingly no to the second. You cant feel that “seam” at all and really, how often do people look closely at your toes? I am glad that I learned how to KS though and it makes me happy that I can join the ranks of skilled sock finishers. I am even more excited that this is how they turned out: I made twins!!! Totally by accident of course but I am so happy that it happened that way. I have one sock on the hanger blocker and as soon as its dry I will swap it for the other and then will wrap and box and send to my Mum. These were supposed to be her Chrismas socks but due to lack of foresight, they are now her ‘getting optimistic for spring’ socks. Pretty funny considering there is about 2.5′ of snow at her house in Michigan and this is the ONLY snow she has had all winter long. Before you ask, Yes, I am going to fix the toe on the other sock. I cant leave it that way now!!!

That is almost 430 yards down for the Lime and Violet sock marathon. When I think of a track, that is only .23 miles…just less than a lap around the track. Ohhhh boy do I have a ways to go. I am still thinking about what my goal for myself is going to be. I am going to finish J’s socks hopefully by this weekend and since he is out fishing for the next few days, I will get in some good knitting time in the evenings and mornings. And then I can buy the yarn for my sweaters Or maybe I will wait until my next paycheck at the beginning of March so I can work on socks and the PNW shawl without feeling like I am neglecting the sweaters or juggling too many WIP’s

Speaking of the PNW Shawl, the needles I ordered from Knitpicks came in yesterday. Apparently it came in on Friday but someone decided not to put the box in my mailbox but to leave it in the mail room with all the kids stuff. Not cool. I was waiting for this mainly because I was getting sick of using the straights. I dont know if I can go back to larger straights because they just feel so heavy and awkward to use. My 7’s still feel OK but the 10’s were just too much. So the PNW shawl is going to move over to those needles and be worked from there for now on. I will post pics on it in a few days when I get through the ’seagull’ lace portion.

I have never liked Kool-Aid. Growing up, it was one of those “juices” that was just gross to me, I never drank it because of, to me, was that “fake” taste. If I wanted grape juice, it needed to taste like grapes darn it Today I turned my life on its head and fell in love with Kool-aid. I still cant stand that fake grape smell and lemon-lime was not my cup of tea either but man, did I dye some GOREGOUS yarn!!!

I was going for that lime and violet look, wanting to create a skein for myself out of the lovely sock yarn that I have for the marathon. Quite fitting I believe. I had bought the yarn quite a few months ago but havent had the space to dye or even the microwave that was big enough. Today we are still housesitting for J’s dad and he has a full sized microwave, sink and space I mixed 3 packs with a bowl full of hot water, one for each colour and went to town handpainting a skein of KP’s Bare Donegal tweed. I had read the KP’s article on dying with Kool-aid and read the Knitty article here My J even said that is looked awesome as it was being dyed and commented on how cool it looked hanging to dry. I cant wait to take pictures for you!! It is drying on the back of the chair right now and I will take pics before and after I ball it up.

I learned to knit from my mother when I was about 6 years old. She wouldnt admit that now that I knit socks if you paid her. Why? Because I apparently knit them wrong. When I hold the needles in the round I knit from the furthest needle onto the empty one.

It just makes sense to me to do it that way. I can see the work clearly, I’m not tipping it away from my body, my wrists are relaxed but this makes the pattern go in the inside of the tube. All the design work…yeah, thats on the inside. To finish the sock, I have to turn it right side out
Not that I mind this but apparently, its a weird thing to do. Its just more comfy to me. I know that all knitters out there have their own “inside out” thing that they do…at least, I hope its not just me! Please let me know if you do

The good thing about my inside out socks is that they count for the LNV sock yarn marathon! It makes me smile just to think of “running” a marathon with sock yarn. I cant imagine how many skeins that would be but I know that it would overflow my tupperware box that I have mine in now and that wouldnt be such a good thing. J is very supportive of my yarn habit and even suggested calling one of the fishing lines my yarn line. Every fish that is caught on that one line alone is how much I can spend on yarn if I so choose. This is great news since King Salmon is going for $9.50 a pound! A 15 lb fish represents $142 so even just catching one should put me in the wool for quite some time. Not a bad thing since I am planning at least $100 from Lisa Souza and 150-200 from Scout I haveput myself on a bit of a restriction though and cant buy any yarn from anyone until I have finished these two pairs of socks that I am on now. Kneehighs will be my next project and I really cant wait to get started!!! Of course I want to do it out of Scouts ‘Van Gogh’ so that will be a lovely $50 pair of socks…sometimes I question my own sanity and then I see this out the window: and I know that if Mother Nature can knit those crystals together and create something priceless and so fragile, I certainly can use some common cash to create usable and hardy socks to wear under my Xtra-Tuffs.