I'm A sock knitter!

So I knit a sock!  Like a real sock (not my mini KnitPicks anklets which I've knit 1 1/2 of).  I knit a Knitmore Girls Vanilla Sock which is just a basic plain top down stockinette stitch sock.  I decided to use the String Theory Caper Sock Yarn that I'd bought for one of Autumn's baby blankets that I started and frogged when I realized I only had half the amount of yarn I needed.

I did about half of the leg before deciding that since I had two balls of the yarn, I should make better use of it and make knee socks.  After lots of knitting, ripping, knitting, and resizing, I finally got the numbers worked out right for it to fit my calf.  I have pretty big calves since I'm short and always standing on my tippy toes so this pattern would probably work best for someone similar (or also with larger calves).

I love this yarn.  It's the same I used for my Grass Green Hat.  Just a bit of cashmere to soften it up.  My issue with this yarn (or at least this skein) was the knots and spinning explosions.  Both of my original tries prior to finally getting the right stitch count for knee socks were cut off instead of being ripped back because there were knots.  There were also a couple spots where the yarn had mini explosions in it.  You know, those random spots where the fiber wasn't spun right and there's a fluffy bulge in the yarn.  Yeah, a couple of those here and there.  I vaguely remember this happening also with the green yarn used for the hat.  But I love the yarn too much to not continue using it.  None of the explosions were bad enough to cause a big interference with the knitting.

I've posted the stitch counts I used on my pattern page of the blog (check it out up on the top!) so that if anyone else would like to try it out they can.  Please note, you will still need to use the Knitmore Girls' pattern for most of the sock.

Now I'm off to work on the second sock :o)

Do You Still Knit??

I know there hasn't been much news on the knitting front these days.  Mainly, it's because of a couple reasons.

1. School.  Taking two summer classes in 6 weeks = not the smartest idea.  It's not really that much work, but on top of everything else it's keeping me on my toes.
2. "Work".  My work knitting takes up pretty much all my knitting time, since that's the only income I have right now (anyone know of any part-time jobs in Brooklyn??).
3. Designing.  Yes, designing.  The Knitmore Girls Podcast is hosting a design contest for premie/newborn hats, and I'm working my butt off to get some in.  Every pattern will be featured in a downloadable e-book, but several will be chosen as winners with prizes.  Either way, I'd love to get that Knitmore logo on my design and the coverage that comes with their name.  I've got 2 hat styles finalized with many other ideas swimming around my head.  I don't know if I want to send all of them or not, though that also depends on if I get them done in time.  I'll do a post about them soon though I promise!

In other news, I've been thinking about all the yarn and projects I have in my room.  Our lease is up in just over 2 months which means moving again.  Moving yarn.  And UFOs.  Oy I get stressed just thinking about it.

So I heard on The Knitting Show and on Peter's blog that he was working on his "Project:  Free the Needles."  I was inspired, and have my own UFO finishing project plan swimming in my head with those hat ideas.  Check back for that one soon too.

Coffee and Knitting

So while I was supposed to be at home on Saturday evening/night working on my homework, I instead decided to hang out with my ladies at Starbucks.  One of them knits, one of them doesn't.  But we always have a good time there.

We were there for about 4 hours just hanging out, knitting, talking, drinking beverages.  Oh, and teaching the Starbucks boys to knit.

Working is overrated anyway right?  Jose was not too thrilled to have his picture taken...except I was video-ing, so once he gets over the camera, he knits his first row:

We're lucky they love us :o).



Don't worry, I got my paper and quiz done Monday morning :o)

My Saviors

Park Slope is an absolute bitch to park in.  It has been rated the best neighborhood to live in in NYC, and also the hardest to park in.  I know most of the people who read this don't live around here (and if they do, they're probably smarter than me and don't try to drive in the city), but I have to give my boys a shout-out anyway.

Roadify is 3 guys working to make life for the rest of us a little less stressful.  They provide a free (wow there's still something free in the city??) text-based service for finding a parking spot.  I won't explain the whole thing here, and though because of the times I come home I usually don't get a spot, they've helped me plenty.

Say, for instance, you really want to do your laundry, meet with a friend who's visiting his parents from Florida, go to Knit Night at the Village Knitter and meet with a designer to drop off her knit pieces/get paid/get more work.  You would load everything up, lug your overflowing laundry basket, laptop, bag of food, and everything else and carry it a very long block away to your car.  Load it all into the car, get in (it's a million degrees in the car too), and turn the key.  The engine turns over twice and then makes a funny clicking noise.  Oh joy.

Yeah, that was my Thursday mid-morning.  I prayed it was just the battery because the last time I heard that noise, Brother and I were stranded in the middle of the pizza place's parking lot with my old Pontiac not starting back in high school.

I texted my dad, Brother, and The Boy.  Dad didn't answer; Brother's response was:  shiiiit; Boyfriend had no clue what to do.  I don't even have jumper cables.  I used them once in college and haven't seen them since.  Roomie wasn't answering the phone (she had just gotten up and the phone was probably still in her room) so I walked back to ask if she could jump me.  Turns out she doesn't have cables either.  SMF.

I had though of tweeting to Roadify as soon as the car didn't start, but I wanted to save that as a last resort.  Of course it came to that though.  I sent out the tweet and within minutes they were asking where my car was.

Dylan, whom I've met before, came with a car and tried to jump my silly Galactica (aka a Hyundai Elantra).  But it didn't work.  The engine was barely turning over before the clicking.  Damn.  Dylan did give me a Roadify Tshirt though!

The car works again.  Cousin and Brother finally got it started by jumping it, but the engine wouldn't restart if you turned it off.  Went and got a new battery on Friday and it's been running great (well, as great as a car with 112,000 miles can run) since.

But more happy news (and still on topic), I got an award this week from Roadify.  Holla!  I even got a mention on the site.  Check it out here (I'm yazipengyou on there).  Yay me!  My trophy was hanging on a sign near the apartment, only Dylan is really tall and I"m really short sooooo I couldn't get it down.  It was gone by the time I tried to show The Boy so all well.  Here's the picture I took of it though:

Roadify keeps us entertained with their YouTube channel.  Check out this video they made: