just maryse

First FO for 2013

you know what happens when you hang out with a friend, without your ipad, while watching 8 episodes of Downton Abbey?

you finish a pair of socks, that you've only been working on since September.

my obsession with color is well-known, but sometimes a creamy, grayed neutral is an excellent palate (or palette - heh) cleanser.  these socks are made with noro silk garden sock using my basic sock recipe. i love them.

but it's not all about beige around here.  i've also been crocheting some circles with leftovers.

mmm colory.

What I Made in 2011

a tradition here in blog land is to do a rundown of what we made the previous year.  an inventory, if you will.

so i spent a few hours on new years eve going through my flickr stream and making a little photo mosaic of what i made.  and here is the result.

i did a shit ton of spinning! well for me anyway. and i knit 6 pairs of socks! which surprised me. i really didn't feel as if i'd made that many, considering that the last pair took forever. there are some other things i made that aren't here that are sekret.  that i can't show you. and the end of the year was spent doing some swatching. i worked on a couple of blankets that also aren't here because they aren't finished. but i did finish one crocheted blanket. it's still sitting in a box in my hall. i haven't given it to the recipients yet.

i was very excited to see joan and gale's book Craft Activism come out (i planned on doing a review months ago and time has gotten away from me. but i will in 2012).  it is fantastic (it has the accolades to prove it -- Library Journal and Amazon chose Craft Activism for their Best Books of 2011 lists). and i was very proud to see my name come up in the acknowledgements.  that doesn't happen too often in my day job - i'm just kind of expected to be awesome all of the time (ha!)- so it was kind of exciting for me. i'd like them to start another one so i can help them again. (oh i'm not kidding).

for 2012, i don't make crafty resolutions. i've got a couple of other sekret projects in the planning stages and i'd like to self publish some things that are roaming around in my head. i'd like to finish the blankets that i've started (not that we need them as it's 50 DEGREES TODAY WITH NO SNOW ON THE GROUND IN JANUARY IN NEW ENGLAND!!!) and i'd like to learn how to weave. i bought a loom over a year ago and i've yet to try it. gah! and i plan on writing more crafty book reviews. i love books. they are so pretty.

so that's it!  happy new year everyone!

 

WIP Wednesday

so yeah i'm knitting.  slowly.  or at least it feels that way.

october ends in less than a week and i haven't finished one single sock.  but it doesn't matter, because it's not really a race. right?

i turned a heel. in my defense, i made great progress at rhinebeck only to figure out that i had dropped a stitch AND HAD TO UNKNIT ALL OF MY WORK.  that's what i get for drinking and knitting.  priorities.

i've also been working on the Fussy Cut Blanket. 

this is such a wonderfully fun pattern to knit. garter stitch, noro silk garden, no seaming. what's not to love?

this pattern, by the mason dixon ladies, can be found in Craft Activism by Gale Zucker and Joan Tapper.

one of these days, i'll write a proper review.

Hi!

i have a work "to do" list, a home "to do" list and now a blog "to do" list.

1. award prizes to those who played along in my contest  almost 3 MONTHS AGO!
2. make my potholder pattern available (it's been tested.  now i just need to clean it up a bit).
3. post about the socks i finished a month ago.

let me at least get item 3 taken off of the list.  it's the least interesting of course, but it's all i can manage for now.  see, my day job has been kind of sucking the life out of me, so when i get home, i end doing crazy things like going to bed at 8:30.  or maybe it's just the incessant rain that we've been having that makes me want to cozy up in my bed with my cats and read a trashy novel (i'm on book 4 of the sookie stackhouse series.)

i've also been working on a secret project.  i would tell you about it except that then it wouldn't be a secret.  now would it.

so, enough with the blah blah.

i call these my troubadour socks because that's the name off the colorway.  i love these colors.  the yarn is sundara sock which i bought before sundara became super crazy famous and when she was still dyeing varigated yarns.  how i love varigated yarns like this. 

the pattern is my basic 2x2 rib pattern, top-down, heel-flapped.  i love the 2x2 rib.

i've raveled the details here.

have a good weekend everyone.  happy  and healthy july 4th.

Three Pairs Done

another pair of 2x2 rib socks are done. 

this time, i used a really beautiful color of Trekking XXL.  this is my first pair of trekking socks and certainly not my last.  i like how springy (not as in the season) and solid they feel.  and the variegation made these fun to knit.  and yes, i know what you're thinking.  aren't i sick of this pattern?  and the answer to that would be a no.  in fact, i've got a fourth pair on the needles already.

the details are raveled.

**************************
day 290 -- not to worry, i've got a pair of mittens to knit in the queue. 

WIP Wednesday

no real progress has been made since last wednesday.  still working on the mystery socks.  and i'm already behind.  i think we're supposed to start the foot, and i haven't even turned the heel.  oh well.  although i brought the socks to rhinebeck with me, i ended up not knitting one stitch on them.   

i did start a cowl, then i frogged it, then i started it again.

i'm further along on the cowl.

**************************
day 187 -- i'm not done with rhinebeck, just taking a little break.  jesus, it's cold in here.  and how cool are these birds?

First Day of Summer

I woke up this morning at 5am.  who gets up at 5am on their first day of vacation?  in a few minutes, J and I are going out for breakfast and then we'll finish packing, load up the mini and head down to NYC.  then tomorrow we're saying BON VOYAGE as we board our ship and head to bermuda, st. thomas and tortola.

i haven 't packed any knitting yet ... the natural choice would be to bring socks, but i don't feel like knitting socks this week.  there's this bag i could start on but it requires that i pack lots of yarn and i dont' want to drag tons of yarn with me (besides i'm not sure that the yarn i have on hand would actually work having done no prep for it).  but i am bringing my spunky eclectic yarn that i spun early this month.

the yarn ended up being thicker than i originally thought it would be but that's ok.  it's single-ply and i think there's a little more than 250 yards. 

before i go, i'm leaving you with my final pre-vacation FO, another pair of basic socks. 

last year, i knit a pair just like these which i gave to my mom.  i liked the colors and the stripes so much that i had to make myself a pair.

and look how great they look with my plastic, orange shoes.  (yes i went for it, but also bought a pair in navy, you know, for more formal occasions.  and i'm a little disappointed with the color.  they looked much brighter in the catalog.)

alrighty, i'm out of here.  i'm bringing the computer with me, the ship has wi-fi.

Red Sox Season

thanks for the compliments on the socks.  a few of you asked if the pattern was Nancy Bush's gentleman sock pattern and i'm proud (small p-proud mind you, i didn't find the cure for cancer or anything) to say that they are not nancy bush's gentleman socks (as lovely as they might be). they are my socks.  that i made up from my head.  all by myself.  like a big girl. 

it's a basic top down heel flap sock.  i cast on 60 stitches because the stitch  (a twisted rib) i used is a 4 stitch repeat.  the flap was knitted on 28 stitches.  the pattern was continued on 32.  for my gusset i picked up 16 stitches and decreased to a total of 60. 

then when i got to the toe i decreased the toe by 4 stitches so that i was left with a total of 56 stitches.  14 for each dpn, 28 on each side if done with two circs or magic loop.  then i just decreased my toe and then kitchenered. 

these were knit with plymouth sockotta in a solid red on size 2 40 inch addi turbos.  (i have big feet.  i need to make myself big socks.) 

i think these will be great for watching the red sox go to the world series!

 

Open Letter to an ASSHAT!

dear asshat,

i'm talking to you.  mr. asshat, with your gray "iowa flip"* (aka comb-over) who is trying to prove that he's still some sort of stud, by driving a sporty silver audi convertible, and not some aging "has been" whose prostate is flaring up.  (by the way, is it wise to be driving a convertible when you are so follicularly challenged?  perhaps you should just get a proper haircut? you aren't fooling anyone).

   
please wait your turn.  it's not ok, just because your car is small and you have a penis,  to slip by 3 other cars, on the right, who are patiently waiting for the light to change so you can be the first at the starting gate when it changes to green.  it isn't.  the lane is designed for only one car , not for two small cars side by side.  just one.  single file.  one after another.   even if you're late for your hairclub for men appointment .... I DON'T CARE .... IT'S NOT OK.  LEAVE THE HOUSE EARLIER LIKE THE REST OF US. 

please wait your turn .... once you've gone through the light before everyone else (when everyone else was in front of you initially) it's not ok then to go into the  left lane, because it's considerably shorter than the right lane (that you should be in , because i'm watching you .... how can i not be with the reflection of the sun off of your half covered skull acting like a beacon, and i can anticipate your every move.    it's not ok, to choose the shorter left hand lane, and then cut someone off who waited patiently in the right hand lane, so you can make a right turn.  it's not ok.  want to know why the traffic is so heinous this morning?  BECAUSE OF ASSHATS LIKE YOU!!!!

god i love the word "asshat."

*i mean no disrespect to the beautiful state of iowa.  i have visited ... well iowa city anyway ... a couple of times, and i found it to be charming and the people are very nice and they don't honk ...AND I'M SURE THEY DON'T CUT PEOPLE OFF IN TRAFFIC!!!! i even considered moving there except that i'm not nice enough.

ok, i 'm done.  here are some socks i just finished.   details later.

One Tower of Pisa Sock Done

2007 started with a bang project-wise.  by mid march i had made 2 scarves, 1 hat, 1 pair of socks, 2 baby sweaters, baby mitts, and i'd spun close to a pound of fiber  ... and then i got sucked into the ripple and started working on some socks.

my tower of pisa socks.

or more accurately ... sock.  i call it the tower of pisa because the stitch, "mailles croisees" (crossed stitches) from a marie claire idees stitch dictionary that i bought this summer in france, makes the leg of the sock look like the leaning tower. 

my struggles have been great.  in the time it's taken me to knit pairs of socks, i barely managed to knit one.  so when i actually got through the toe while at work today, i was eager to finish.

but i didn't have a sewing needle on me to kitchener the opening closed.  so i mac gyvered one.

on to my second sock!