New Jessicas

We happen all the time.

I got together with my friends Sandra and Alyssa to have a super fun hair dye party! Here's the three of us together:


Sandra's ended up much darker than we expected it to and Alyssa's and mine look very similar in the photo, but are less similar in real life I think...lol ;) It was so much fun. Sandra is coming over on Wednesday and I will be adding some highlights to her hair...and we might put some carroty orange-red highlights into mine. I have the dye, but I sort of like it how it is...I have a few days to mill it over. It's only hair, right? Right. lol ((more photos are on my flickr page))

Alyssa really want to learn to knit and I think she is going to come over sometime this week so that I can try to teach her. Sandra mentioned too that it might be fun...which is funny because I tried to get her to learn through college when we were roommates and she showed no interest whatsoever. But YAY! More knitters!! I'm luring them in!!

My mom's socks are done!!!!


They look great after a nice wash and block on a towel!! I hope she loves them! I think they will be a nearly perfect fit, if not completely perfect. Proud. lol

Since my mom's socks are off my mind now, I worked a bit on my Purple Lace Blouse (a bit means 16 plus rows, which encompasses two decrease rows on both front pieces). I will probably work more on it this afternoon after I get in some spinning time. I want to at least get the singles out of the way before I head "home for the holidays." I think it will be much easier to ply on the trip than to spin up singles and I definitely want to take some spinning with me.

OK, I feel like watching anime all day now. So, I'm going to do that. ;p

Spinning

Today was all about the spinning. I seemed to be doing it for hours and my basket of fiber is still relatively full. I've noticed a difference in weight on the spindle and I am wondering if I should unload it. I really do not want to because the only way I really know how to ply right now is by winding it all into a center pull ball and winding both ends together. I'm sure there are other methods, but I don't know them and/or am too scared to give them a try just yet. I'm still a beginner; keep that in mind.


This will end up being a pretty fine yarn. I'm hoping that it will be laceweight, because, as we know, I love lace. I will have to wait and see after I ply it. While spinning, I've been trying to make it as thin as possible without it becoming too weak for the spindle, which makes a pretty fine singles. Of course, I have seen much thinner spindle spun yarns. The type of spindle I have does not really lend itself to such fine yarns. What I really want to get my hands on is a Russian style spindle. Any true lace-lover/spinner should have a few. These are the spindles used to make the gorgeous Orenburg lace cobweb yarns. But, until I can get my hands on a few (you actually do need more than one, and separate slightly larger one for plying), I will have to be satisfied and skillful with what I have. What I have is a perfectly good spindle that I still think is gorgeous and very high quality. I love it. No complaints!

I want to spin more, but I have to finish my mom's socks. If I can get through the gussets tonight, I see no problem finishing these by tomorrow evening. My Friday goal is in sight.

But before I even pick up those needles, I need to do some intense stretching. Spinning, more than knitting, tends to hurt my shoulders. I think it is because I do not spin as much as I knit and I am using underused muscles. Breaks help.

Catch you all later and hopefully tomorrow I will have some FO shots for you all!

On the right track

Well, well, well. Look what we have here. A sock and his half finished little buddy.


More photos here.

OK. Here I go. I have to make an explanation. As you can see, I have decided that the best route to finishing these suckers involves knitting one sock at a time. I just couldn't handle the tangles from the mega ball anymore. Enough is enough. I still prefer to knit two socks at one time, but it was just too much to use two ends of the same ball. Next time, I will divide the hank as evenly as possible into two separate balls before casting on. At least that way I can keep the two balls separate. It's kind of hard to keep two ends from the same ball from tangling. Lesson learned.

I made some changes to the pattern (most likely the same or similar changes that others have made according to the KAL). I'm pretty sure the pattern had mistakes in it anyway, as I had to correct one for the heel in order to make it even. The pattern said to knit 30 rows for the heel, slipping the first stitch on each row. Then, it said to pick up 30 stitches for the gusset, which did not make sense to me. What was the point, then, of slipping those stitches? Normally, you pick up one stitch in each slipped stitch, not two. So, I did what I've done on every other sock I've knit thus far and picked up 17 stitches (the extra stitches were to keep it tidy and avoid gaps).

The sock is only slightly big on me, which is a good sign that it will fit my mom, who is a size or two larger than me in the foot-al regions. :) I hope they fit her, though. I also hope that they do not pill too much. I've noticed that the finished sock has developed a little bit of a halo just from the knitting and I am wondering if that is going to become a problem with wear. I'm pretty sure that she has a sweater shaver. So, if it gets that bad, she can go to town with the thing.

Gauge. It seems loose for a sock. I'm worried about the strength and durability of these socks, especially considering the halo and possible pilling. I think socks should be knit at tight gauges, don't you? Otherwise, I just don't think they are strong enough for everyday wear. My Child's First Socks were knit in a sturdy non-sock yarn (Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool) at a really tight gauge and I am confident enough to wear them in shoes with backs. My Orange Breeze Socks, on the other hand, I only wear with my Birks. Maybe it is paranoia, but so be it. Max's socks got one hole and another about to happen after a little more than a week of wear. I'm still trying to get over the bitterness of that one. So, I don't know. I keep thinking that I won't be knitting many more socks in the future, but I just love the look of them...and I still have sock yarn that needs to be knit up. I could always do shawls instead, but there are so many sock patterns that I also love. I'm sure I'll knit more socks, but it really helps to think that this is the last pair I'll ever make. I don't know why. ^.^

I know that I said I would talk about NaNoWriMo, but I don't really know what to say other than it was a great experience. It was very difficult at times, but I pushed myself to the limit (or what I, as a huge cry baby, have labeled as the limit) and I pulled off just over 50,000 words one day before the deadline! I am surprised with myself and also quite proud. My story surely needs a lot of work. I have not even read through it yet...not once!...and I probably won't do a read-through until it is actually finished. I'm just now approaching the first of the major climaxes (don't ask) and it will probably get up to 80,000 words before it is actually done. At least that is what I am hoping. Then, I will reread, do the first edit and allow a few close and interested friends to read it over and give suggestions, questions, etc... That probably won't be happening for months because I'm so secretive about my writing. I'm getting over it, slowly and surely, but it is still hard to talk about it with people...especially when they ask what it is about and I just sit there for a while and try to come up with something interesting! lol Well, anyway, I loved NaNoWriMo. I learned that I am capable of doing a lot of writing in a very short period of time and I am capable of writing fiction under a deadline, which was something that had always worried me about becoming a successful writer with a contract from some publishing house. I can do it.

I can do a lot of things...I can finish these socks by Friday!

Another thing that has been going on in the past few days is a little bit of spinning:



I'm planning on devoting more time to it tomorrow, but isn't it pretty? I don't know what to make with it or what it will look like once I ply it, but it makes me feel good all the same. ^.^

Oh yeah, and the new knitty is up! I want to knit this! I like this too, but let's be honest, I won't be making it anytime soon.

OK, a whole lotta knitting love to all. I'm going to enjoy a nice hot cup of ecinacea tea (good for your immune system and tasty, tasty, tasty...it's naturally sweet too!) and my hot shoulder/neck pillow while watching silly internet shows with my charming Russian husband. Life is good...in spite of it all.

There are a million reasons...

...why Max is my hero.

Yesterday, I had quite an emotional afternoon. I spent most of my morning writing. I wanted to keep track of my daily word count. So, to make it easier, I was just typing it up in a blank document to copy and paste into the actual document later. Just as I was about to do it, after five single spaced pages, the whole program crashed and I was devastated. Devastated and Angry. I hadn't saved the untitled document I had been typing in all morning and the situation was very frustrating and dire. I could not bear the thought of having to write it all again. I had been in the flow and did not reread it as I went along for fear of disrupting said flow. The Flow was also why I failed to save it until five pages in. I was too angry to do anything so I took a shower...while in the shower, I tried to remember what I wrote and I couldn't think of most of it. More anger, more cursing...

But Max, he came along and saved five pages of my writing from oblivion. Apparently, Appleworks has an autosave feature for your saved documents, which I knew. However, this document was NOT A SAVED DOCUMENT. I had not clicked that little button to create a permanent file. Still, Appleworks had saved it under a numerical name 20 characters long someplace random on my computer and Max found it!! It was a jumbled mess and spread out over something like five separate files, but it was there. All of it. Max is my hero...and God bless Macintosh...

Other than being generally wonderful and good with computers, he bought me these for my birthday:



The Knit Picks Options Interchangeable Needle Set!! I'm so excited and I can't wait to use them! They feel really nice and the join seems like it will be smooth. I love the case and the very notion of it all being neat and organized (not to mention very shiny) is very exciting to me.

He really is the greatest...and handsome too:


Hehehe...are you blushing yet, honey? :p

Ok, enough of that. I don't want to make anyone puke. Onto the knitting pictures!

My mom's socks look like this:


I hope she likes them...

My Swallowtail Shawl looks like this:



I love Edgar Allan Poe, btw...

My most recently started project looks like this!:


It's the Inga Hat. I'm knitting it with three colors throughout instead of only two. I think it looks cool. The photo doesn't do the colors justice. I took about a thousand shots in different lighting and none of them really captured it. This is the closest one. They are very bright...nearly florescent...and they really pop against the brown background. I'm not usually into those kinds of colors, but for this, they rock!! I can't wait to wear this thing! It's halfway finished.

So, I do believe that is all for today. Happy Knitting!

All that's left now...

...are the sleeves!! The front and back of my sweater are finished! Yay! It only seemed to take forever.

I started a scarf to learn continental knitting. I'll show it to you later.

So, normally, I hate to purl. However, I have found that I love to purl continental style! Actually, I love a lot about the continental style and want to master it and make the switch!! I knit so much more loosely, which is good because I am a very tight knitter and it makes things frustrating when starting new projects. Yay, continental!

I had a knit night with some friends the other night. Our antics looked like this:




Alana is wearing the scarf that she cast off THAT NIGHT!! Can you tell how excited she is, even with the dangling loose ends? lol I taught her how to bind off! Yay!

My novel has been neglected for the past two days and will probably be absolutely starving for attention by this evening. I've been feeling down and not up to writing. I don't know. My birthday was on the 14th and I'm not who I thought I'd be at this point. I mean, I'm me...and I know that I'm great...it's just other crap that I've dealt with my whole life that hasn't gone away now that I'm a "grown up," even though I really thought it would. Stupid stuff...I won't go on about it.

I wound up some two year old yarn that was in a tangled hank in my bedroom:


Oh, and I knit my pregnant buddy, Michelle, some super cute baby booties:


That's all. :P

Socks for Mommy

Today, my NaNoWriMo word count goal is 5,020. So, what am I doing? I'm writing a knitting blog post, of course!

I started a new pair of socks this afternoon. I think I'm going to be giving them to my mommy for Christmas. They are the Sweet Pea Socks and the yarn and the pattern were the September shipment from the Hill Country Yarns Sock Club. I have knit the cuffs and so far, so good.



About the novel, I am now at a turning point and I am not sure I know how to take it. I know the story, just not the details. My goal is not to write 50,000 words, but to write 66,000 words by the end of November 30th. I might be crazy, but I'm loving this. It's great to get this story that has been in my head for months finally out on electronic paper. I knew nothing about my main character going into this, only what would happen to her. I didn't know she would be an artist, for instance, but if you know anything about me that one shouldn't surprise you. (wink). It's often this way when I write. I'm not one for outlining what happens chapter by chapter. I don't care to do research before the writing...on the characters, settings, etc...I'd just prefer to let it go where it wants as long as I have some control over the major plot points. Most of the time, I'm trying to tell something to the reader...more than a story.

Blah blah blah. I just wrote all that garbage to get me into the writing mood, but it's all true in the end.