Lots happening... except knitting!

I've been horribly bad about knitting lately. Orangina was supposed to be finished before I went to NYC in September, but the needles were making my hand cramp like crazy and I am no longer going to NYC (I'm going to New Orleans in November to help with Katrina relief instead... I am so looking forward to helping out down there!!). Branching Out is still branching out... Clapotis is still sitting pretty. I did knit up a Lacy Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts for a friend, but I have yet to block it, so there really isn't anything exciting to show there yet.

Instead, we've been getting the girls ready for a new school, trying to help a friend through some major tough personal stuff, and celebrating our 1st wedding anniversary! And in true Sara fashion, I did get pictures of that!

We celebrated by visiting the Old Port in Portland... which has fabulous shops and pubs, and you can walk right out onto the pier by the ferry terminal and sit by the ocean. I love Portland so much... not quite like Boston, but the more I spend time there, the closer it gets. We had dinner at RiRa, which is an Irish pub down by the water that has burgers to die for (I think they must be made with crack??) and real yummy beer.







yes... Seth has longer hair than I do. His is cute and curly, though.




Looking up toward the Old Port from the ferry terminal pier. Isn't the sky gorgeous?


This was beer number 1... I had a Smithwicks on tap for number 2.

So I lied about coming in and showing pictures of the slouchy beanie in progress, but a lot of that had to do with the fact that I ended up doing super mad knitting over the past week and a half. Maybe it is just me, but when I get really pissy about something, I suddenly knit much faster than normal. It also tends to cause major wrist soreness, but you know, you do what you've got to do, right? So one of my prized possessions, my wonderful ipod, decided to shite the bed and in my irritation, I finished the beanie in record time.

(The ipod is truly dead... I've tried reformatting it 3 times already and everytime it reformats it generates a new problem. This does not make me happy, especially since I cannot afford a new ipod).

At any rate, here is the slouchy beanie finished... ignore the dorky grin on my face.




I'm not sure that it came out quite as well as I had hoped, but not bad for generating something without a pattern for the first time. It was created with two strands of Bernat Baby Soft held together (I used a denim blue and a light light blue) and size 5 needles. If anyone expresses some kind of interest in the pattern, I am sure I can probably remember enough of what I did to write one up.

Now that it is done, I feel like I should be concentrating more on Orangina, but those nasty needles truly are keeping me away. I can only do 1 or 2 repeats of the pattern at a time before my hands hurt.

But, on a happier note, here is one of my sock yarn skeins all wound into a sort of center pulled ball and ready to go...


I think I am going to try the Magic Loop technique for this pair of socks.

For some reason I had this idea in my head that it had been about three weeks since I posted last, but in looking at the dateline, it's only been a matter of days.

Time flies when you are having fun knitting.

I'm at a good 12 inches on Orangina, but honestly haven't touched in since the weekend when I did two pattern repeats and then stopped. Have I mentioned how much I hate the needles I am using? I was subconsciously pushing the needle down with my index finger when I would make a stitch, and because I am not used to the metal needles, I split my finger open. Pleasant... but I really wasn't looking to customize my Orangina with spatters of blood.

I have, though, been working on another project. One of my cousins in Texas asked if I would have any idea how to knit a hat similar to this one:



Yes, dear readers, that is Ashley Olsen. You know, the twin that doesn't wear so much ripped up clothes. Anyway, since my cousin was willing to pay for the creation of said hat, I decided rather than scout around for pattern ideas I would create it myself. Not only would that bring a sense of satisfaction to create my own thing, but it would also keep me from being in trouble for violating copyright.

The band part went really well... I'm using bobbles for the bumpy parts in the picture. But being stupid, I increased way too much after the band and created some sort of light blue yarn monster that resembled one of those poofy chef hats. I ripped all 9 billion yards of too much increase out and (I hope) am back on the right track. I think it will end up looking slightly rasta-ish in the back, but not so big. I'll try to remember to post a picture of it in progress.

After dying my own yarn the other day I sat holding some of my Wool2Dye4 yarn and dreaming of the spectacular colors I could create.

And then I remembered that these are 1/2 pound hanks, and I do not yet have a yarn yardage thingy-majig. I attempted to jerryrig one in my garage by measuring on a long board, but we were fresh out of dowels. Or big nails. Or screws. Or anything large enough to hold the yarn solid. I'll have to see about getting some dowels when I get paid next week. Until then, I can only look sadly on my undyed sock yarn.