Tomorrow is my first day at the new job, so now when you don't hear from me, it's because I'm busy working and figuring out everything. :)

Although I do have very pretty new socks, which you can see here if you are on Ravelry. If you're NOT on Ravelry, what are you waiting for??

I've finished up my alpaca/wool coat, which is snuggly and warm, and am nearing completion of Pomatomuses which have taken a backseat to a brioche scarf in Cormo for our friend, who is stuck in WV for 6 months in the freezing cold and away from his wife. After that, I'll probably start in on fabulous accessory scarves to wear at work, or a sweater -- I have 4 sweaters-worth of yarn, all different weights and flavors.

(3.3 skeins Malabrigo worsted + US 10.5 needles) * 8 days =

A sea anemone.

No, really.



Add water and pins, and you get this.



(pattern courtesy of Jared Flood, compiled by The Rainey Sisters)

Yesterday, Dana and I replaced the showerheads in the master shower -- after spending a month showering in the guest bathroom with the Awesome Showerhead due to tile-related leakage, we were a little disappointed by the meager output in the main digs. After that, we replaced the towel bars, moved a door frame up to the garage (after last week's Door Replacing gig), and then once our friend Larry was done buying his new gun (this IS southern VA, after all), he came over and helped us replace the kitchen faucet. The prior faucet was functional, but quirky (moving the faucet head back and forth actually changed the temperature, which was a nasty surprise if you moved it to the left and got the we-don't-have-kids-so-our-water-heater-is-set-unnaturally-high scaldathon). Dana cooked while Larry plumbed, and I flitted back and forth handing things to each of them, trying to keep track of what I touched last so we didn't have any weird cross-contaminate meatball/teflon tape issues, and apart from a set of channel locks going mysteriously missing for 30 minutes, ended the evening with yummy food and a nicer looking kitchen.

Tally for the day: 3 new plumbers, one new gun, 12 awesome meatballs (and NO broken nails!). We're voting McCain, fersure.

Whomever you support, GO VOTE tomorrow. I'll be voting mid-morning to avoid the before work lines...probably the only benefit of being unemployed, yes?

You've probably never seen me post anything vaguely political here; I loathe confrontation, and I know most of my flist are quite liberal, so I keep my mouth shut.

( my reasons, probably not as eloquent as you'd hope )

About a year ago, I found myself waiting outside PetSmart for Hagen to have a bath. I went into the Ben Franklin next door, and got a pair of knitting needles and some fluffy chenille yarn. ladylyonesse had been after me to take up knitting again; my mother taught me how when I was knee-high to a grasshopper, but after a scarf and a pair of mittens for a college boyfriend, I hadn't touched it.

I spent the next hour reteaching myself how to cast on (in a manner known only to my mother and myself, it seems), and seeing if this knitting stuff was at all interesting to me.

Five sweaters, six pairs of socks, two baby blankets, piles of mittens and scarves and hats AND half an afghan later, I think the answer is "yes."

(I will NOT learn about quilting. She can't make me.)

Simultaneous toe-up socks, two needles, one skein.

::flexing::

Anyone got a sock toe decrease pattern they'd be willing to email (or comment) to me? I'm AT that point on this sock, and left the frelling pattern at home (basic sock pattern by Ann Budd's Book of Handy Patterns for Knitters or whatever the hell it's called). I'm decreasing from 72 stitches, and IIRC it's:

(round starts in middle of sole)
Round 1: K to within 3 sts of instep, K2tog, K1, sm, K1, SSK, work instep to within 3 sts of sole, K2tog, K1, sm, K1, SSK, K to end of round
Round 2: work in pattern
Repeat until sts have been decreased by X amount, then decrease every round until Y sts remain. Graft. Do happy finished sock dance.

Anyone? because otherwise I'll have to a) not knit on my lunch hour or b) go to the yarn store where I will likely SPEND MONEY.

Dana had a class in Norfolk on Saturday, so we dropped off Hagen at doggy daycare and headed down Friday. If you're ever in Norfolk, and you're a foodie, go to Bobbywood. This was our second meal there, and FABULOUS. We started with little "spoons" of appetizers -- mashed potatoes and blue cheese, wild mushroom risotto, cream cheese and leek polenta, and crab mac & cheese. Soup was a roasted red pepper with crab meat, and then Dana had foie gras and I had a YUMMEH goat cheese tart thingy. No idea what he had for dinner, except that it was fab (I was a little cacked by that point), and I had filet mignon with mashed potatoes and cippolini onions. His dessert was chocolate lava cake with pistachio ice cream and chocolate jelly, and I had lemon chess pie with raspberry sorbet and perfectly marvelous raspberries.

Saturday he headed off to class, and I amused myself at the hotel until checkout, and then drove to Virginia Beach to Ewe Knits Kits & Yarn. I tried to look their ratings up on KnitMap, but my Treo wouldn't show me anything and Dana's iPhone would only give us a 5 mile radius. What a lovely store!! They've got about double the stock of my LYS, with only a little overlap, so there was MUCH shopping to be had. They'd never heard of Malabrigo, so I showed them my scarf, and they showed me Manos a Uruguay, which looks just the same but doesn't feel as nice because it's a completely different fiber content. I ended up with the Magic Loop instruction booklet, three sock patterns, a skein of Austermann in husband-approved colors, a skein of Lorna's Laces worsted for me (one of the sock patterns only called for 1 skein!), and some unbelievably yummy rayon chenille that washes and dries from garter stitch to such velvety depths -- I couldn't pass it up.

Sunday was more knitting, with a short visit to my LYS, and then we had pizza with the rescue team at our house. I finished my Ana bandanna which is totally cyoot, and will cast on some fetchings today.

WHEE!

School's been out since the 21st, so I've been working from home. When not coding long-distance, I've been curled up in a chair knitting, watching Dana take on Oblivion, generally with a dawg at our feet. Not a bad existence, says I.

( but Faith, WHAT did you knit? )

AND, I've received my assignment for the Malabrigo swap, and I couldn't be happier. Not only is her favorite color one of the only colors I know my LYS has Malabrigo in-stock, but she's a gothy piratical seamstress type. It's like shopping for a friend, I swear. :) I'm hoping to find fun notions or perhaps a cool pattern that's off the beaten track for her.

Pictures to follow, of course. Someday I must break out the good camera and not just my phone...

I apologize for the craptastic nature of the following photos.

Fuschia baby hat

Blue baby hat

(both baby hats modeled courtesy of The Office Plush Cow)

Little brown hat (skullcap, seed stitch banding and earflaps, i-cord ties with pompoms on end -- I point all that out because you really can't see it)

I'll get a shot of the Felted Intarsia Thing when I get home tonight -- I'll never wear it and it will likely go on Etsy, but I'm very pleased that I pulled off both techniques. :)

(and OMG! pacertypepad actually reads my blatherings?!? ::scampers off to tidy up the place::)