Happy Halloween!

So tonight we attempted a redo of last year’s funtimes (scroll down to Nov. 1 if you're seriously interested)… grilling, trick-or-treators, and wine. It was a ball. The guys are still here playing Madden and I'm online procrastinating....

Although once again the trick-or-treating was less than steller (we had about 6 kids total) at least this year there was no homeless guy with a story about his grandma in a car under a bridge begging for five dolla. Jill and I did make a kick ass apple pie... and really if there's a pie involved goodtimes are sure to be had by all.



Anyways....I’m going to be MIA for awhile b/c tomorrow I leave for the National Trust for Historic Preservation conference in Pittsburgh. I won’t be back until Sunday (in time to watch football, of course) Hey, speaking of football… right now the Browns and the Steelers have the same record! It’s a wonderful, wonderful thing. And actually it’s about the only thing that makes living with a Steelers fan during a losing season tolerable.

Ok. I seriously do have to pack now.

Happy Halloween!!!

Boring life = Boring blog

Well Life in Cleveland had been really boring for most of October… our trip to the Fingerlakes was wonderful but then we had to ground ourselves for awhile b/c we spent waaay too much money on wine. Then the next weekend we were both sick… so yeah….I hadn’t been out in forever. Like a month. That’s a really, really long time for us. Boring life, Boring blog.

So anyways I wanted to spice up the boring blog with some pictures from the costume party we went to Sat night… but sadly I took about two sips of a citron cosmo, remembered how much Jeanne likey the vodka and forgot about my camera (and about pretty much everything else in the world except for dancing to the kick-ass cover band). Hopefully Jennifer will post some pics soon (hint, hint)!

Instead I’ll just share with you some photos that my dad took of the lake on Saturday… apparently there were 4 ft. waves inside of Edgewater Marina. 4 footers are pretty common on the lake but inside the marina?! That’s insane. A lot of the boats were damaged but luckily my dad’s was ok.

Some Boring Math... and socks!

Ok so basically I found out that knee socks are knit like anything else with shaping… just increase until it’s big enough to fit. I did the math anyways 'cause I'm a little OCD like that.

The Boring Math:
The sock circumference at my ankle (meaning what I’ve already knit) is 8". My calf measures around 15"ish (told you it was freakish) but I need some negative ease so I’ll say 14"ish. So I need to increase 6" (14" – 8"). At a gauge of 8 st/inch that means that I need to increase 48 stitches (6" x 8).

I probably should have started the increases much, much earlier… but since I didn’t and I don’t want to rip back I just measured from the top of my current knitting until the widest part of the freakish calf. That measurement is 4". So if my row gauge is 12, that means I have 48 (4" x 12rows/inch) rows left.

This means that I have to increase by 48 stitches in 48 rows…. So I either increase once every row or twice every other row.


Now what does it mean for the ribbing? There is a purl ridge centered on the back of my sock so I first though I would increase on either side of that every other row…. which would looks something like this..

Increasing on either side of the center purl ridge

I like how I can just add in ribs when I’ve increased by enough stitches…but it seems like I’m doing a lot of increasing in one place… this could look really dramatic and the last thing I want to do is call attention to the freakish calf. Perhaps if it was spaced out over more rows.

So then I thought about pairing increases on either side of the leg… which would look like this...

Increasing on either side of the leg:
That I liked… not so dramatic but with the same amount of increase over the same amount of rows.

So here’s what it looks like in sock form:



Sweet. Now I just have to figure out the cuff!

Have a great weekend… and if you happen to be a Stampers for their Halloween party Sat. night I’ll probably see you there!

Knee highs?

So I’ve reached that magical point where my sock is as tall as the foot:


This is supposed to be where the sock is done… but I still have all of this yarn left:


Seriously.... waaay too much yarn to just leave:


So I’m thinking knee-highs…. All I have to do is increase to fit my freakishly large calves right? And then just continue as planned with the knitting until I run out of yarn? But I have to somehow increase within the ribbing pattern....Hmmm…. I think some googling and perhaps even a little sketching is in order. I’ll let you know what I find out.

In other news if you’re an Office fan like we are you can now watch every single episode online Here. Or you could watch Buffy or even the sadly cancelled Arrested Development. Goodstuff.

Strep.

So thanks so much for all of your nice comments on my Odessa! I’m sorry I’ve been MIA on returning the emails but I’ve been housebound with strep throat… Seriously. Haven’t had that since I was 10… ugh. I’ve spent the better part of four days now in a heap on the couch watching really, really bad tv (if there’s bad TRL on I have no will power… I haven’t seen Trading Spaces in years and it’s nice to know Hilde still sucks).

I’ve also been obsessing over this sock:


Knit out of Lorna’s Laces Shepard sock in Desert Flower on size 1 needles… toe up… using a heel flap and the rib pattern from Thuja.

I’m going to go take my antibiotic and go back to bed now… tomorrow I make my triumphant return to the world of the living (meaning work).

Hope you had a better weekend than I did!

Sunday in Odessa

K so after the sock issue I decided to go back to knitting something a little more flexible with the gauge thing…like a charity hat!
Pattern: Odessa from Magknits – I saw a super-cute one of these on In Knitting News a long, long time ago and have been wanting to knit one since then.

Timeline: I cast on a few weeks ago when I was going through a beading not blogging phase… and then didn’t really look at it much until yesterday.

Modifications: none, really (is this a first?)

Yarn: about half of a ball of Cotton Ease that the groups Caps for the Cure was kind enough to send me. I think I may even still have enough left to knit another hat out of the same ball!

The verdict: Knitting with beads is fun but a giant pain in the butt. Stringing them sucked a lot. But the hat is soooo worth it. I love it. It’s cute, it’s funky, it was a semi-mindless knit. Great pattern. It will be hard to send this one away!

Sock gauge

So apparently gauge does matter for socks.


Yeah that would be the start of the Widdershins socks with the ribbed pattern from the Thuja socks but with a short row toe. I thought all would be good… widdershins called for 7 stitches to an inch… my ball band said that’s what I would get… the Sockulator gave me the same number of stitches for my shoe size at 7 stitches per inch… all was good.

Except I’m not getting 7 per inch. I’m getting 8.

So this pretty sock:

doesn't fit at all. Nevermind.

Fingerlakes Fingerless Gloves

So I still have not downloaded and sorted all of the pictures from our trip…plus I’m not really sure how I want to blog about it b/c I’m very, very tempted to write about all of the wineries but that would be boring… so how about a little knitting content instead?

Fingerlakes Fingerless Gloves aka My Fetching AnniversaryMitts:


Pattern: Fetching from Knitty
Timeline: I cast on in the car right around Chataqua and knit during the part of the ride that Matt was listening to the Cjhicago/Buffalo game (he has a Bears quarterback for his fantasy league so this was a very important game. Riiiight.)

Then I knit again at the B ‘n B while Matt watched the Steelers game… I finished them in the car on the way home while we both listened to NPR because after 48 hours of no news we were both going a little nuts. Apparantly we're complete NPR junkies.

Modifications: I knit them on a size 5 instead of a size 6 because I have small hands, plus I really, really didn’t want to run out of yarn. Also I messed up and crossed the second cable a row early – so I made that same "mistake" on the second glove, too. It’s not a mistake if they match!

Yarn: 1 ball of cashmerino with a decent amount leftover.
The verdict: I really like these – quick project, only one ball of yarn, etc. etc… but… I don’t think I like the picot bind off. It’s really pretty – and I like how it lines up with the purl columns… but it makes the gloves very open at the top. I’m planning on wearing these while knitting at the bus stop and I guess I wanted something a little snugger in the hand to keep me warm. Oh well. I also am not super-thrilled with the way that the thumb works. It may be my knitting but the join between the thumb and the hand looks rather sloppy. I think if/when I knit these again I may try to figure out some type of gusset or something. They are real cute, though and I’ve been wearing them almost constantly since I finished them!

In other news…I think my next project is going to involve this:


It’s two skeins of Lornas Laces Shepherd Sock in the Desert Flower colorway from my Secret Pal 8. I think Soctoberfest is the perfect time to start something with it! Plus I need some new bus knitting (the Andy hunting socks are done but not finished… I turned them inside out, realized I have a lot of ends to tuck in, and haven’t looked at them since. I need to somehow force myself to finish them so I’m not frantically tucking in ends and cursing minutes before I have to wrap them.)

Whew! That was alot of lunchtime blogging! Have a great weekend!

Dogs in the woods:

Do you guys remember those hidden image puzzles in the highlights magazines? Yeah… that’s what this feel like… anyways here’s the "solution" to Where’s Dexter:

Allegro

So I need to briefly interrupt this blog to let you guys know about something really, truly cool that’s going on in Cleveland…

Cleveland is lucky enough to have literally one of the top orchestras in the nation (Check out this article to see what I’m talking about). Recently a group of young people have started working to restart Allegro (otherwise known as the Junior Committee of The Cleveland Orchestra or JCCO) . Wed. night was their inaugural event:

Chamber Music on Tap

We went and it was spectacular. 10 members of the orchestra played for us (10!!)…. And hung out with us before and afterwards. Getting to see people who are that good (like best in the entire frickin’ world good) play up close and personal… it was simply amazing. I know that Allegro is sponsoring at least two upcoming concerts at Severance but I don’t have the dates on hand. If anyone is interested please email me and I’ll pass on the info for you…...

So much to blog about... Doggies!

Well we’re back and we had a fantastic time. I have lots to blog about and many many pictures to share... but it will have to wait until tonight b/c I haven’t even had a chance download the photos yet…

For now I’ll just post this picture of the three of the family dogs (mine, my parents, and my bro’s) playing in the woods on the hike we took in Oberlin on Saturday…

Yeah… they’re all three in that photo….

This week is finally over!!!

Other things that are making me happy right now that I've been wanting to blog about:

1.) I’m posting this from home – my internet is back up!!!!

2.) Today was my big work deadline. Everything got done!! Everything was submitted on time!!! And I must say it all pretty much kicked ass.

3.) I have neighbors! We’ve lived on our street for a year now (house-iversary was last week, no post b/c no internet) and I love our neighborhood and I’m glad we moved here for a million reasons but we didn’t really know anyone close by. Then out of the blue we were invited to a clam bake at a house down the street … It was Sat. night… and we didn’t know anyone there (not even the host)… but now we do! It turns out that our entire block is pretty much young couples with little kids. We had a ball… and met some really cool people (who live on our street!!) I’m so happy to finally have neighbors!

4.) Melt – the new restaurant in Lakewood. I went last Fri… good food made with mainly local ingredients (like local beer brats), good atmosphere, good mix of people… defiantley worth a try.

5.) They made fun of Carl Monday on the Daily Show. It. Was. Awesome. Go Here to watch the segmant - it's the first two on the list.

5.) Tomorrow we are going to my aunt and uncle’s studio in Oberlin – Riverdog – for their open house… and the exhibit is on my great-grandfather’s photography. I can’t wait to see it all. Plus their studio sits on 20+ fenced-in acres of woods so we’re bringing the herd to let them run. Should be funtimes.

6.) Speaking of the herd… Max goes home on Sunday! Our dog-to-people ratio will go back to normal! Dexter is actually going with him because…

7.) Monday is October 9th… which means that two years ago we were doing this:



(more pics on the photoblog - scroll down- the wedding galleries are at the bottom)

To celebrate we’re going to go to the fingerlakes for some much needed relaxation and wine. We’re staying at this cute little bed and breakfast in Penn Yan on the Keuka Lake. Two days off of work to watch the leaves change and drink wine? Perfect.

8.) I was able to return 2 skeins of DalegarnFalk that I bought for the Andy Hunting Socks and with it bought this:

Yeah buddy! New yarn! And a new magazine! I bought it on Tues and haven’t even had a chance to open it yet – but as soon as I finish this post I plan on remedying that.


The yarn is one skein of Cashmerino that is slated to become fetching. My plan is to take only this project with me to the finger lakes. I don’t expect I’ll do much knitting on this trip but I need to be prepared…I have a very strong feeling that Sunday night we’re going to have to find a bar to watch the Steelers game even though we are on a romantic anniversary vacation in beautiful wine country. Yeah… I am a great wife.

Anyways I’m going to go curl up with my new magazine for an hour before we go out tonight…

Have a wonderful weekend!!! I’m sure I’ll have lots of pictures to post when we get back on Tues....

Getting Closer

The Andy Hunting Socks are so close to being done I can feel it:

I ended up knitting the blue stripes on both socks simultaneously off of the same ball working from both ends… I wanted to be sure that I wouldn’t run out and that the stripes would match exactly. A little OCD I know but whatever…

I also think it’s so cool that as Becky pointed out the socks are blueheelers… and my brother’s best friend is a Blueheeler. I think he’s going to love them.

Also – does anyone know of a good, loose bind-off method for K2,P2 ribbing? I’m not sure how to do that and make it stretchy enough for the cuff of a sock…

The Grandma Cherry Blossom Shawl continues to inch along:

I’m done done done with the body part now! I started the knit on edging but it doesn’t look right… I think I need to rip back and try again….

Finally – October is Socktoberfest. I joined but I don’t really have any huge goals… I think my main goal is just to pay attention to the blogs and learn as much about socks as possible…. Perhaps even get up the courage to start some socks out of the wonderful yarn my SP8 sent me… I dunno yet… I have to finish the Andy Hunting Socks before I can even think about it...

Ok well.. my "slew of posts" turned out to be just two… I have more but I have to get home, walk the herd, and make dinner before the season premier of Lost tonight!

Grocery Wars

So my parent’s dog Max is staying with us for the next week while they are out of town…. Now usually the two dogs get along fine… Max is big, dumb, and a complete sweetheart while Dexter is little, smart, and kindof sneaky. They make a great duo. Dexter bosses the big dog around and Max is happy to have someone to direct him. He even follows Dexter around the house all day waiting for instruction…We’ve decided to rename them George and Lenny.

Well then last night I went grocery shopping and Max claimed the grocery bags as his own. Dexter would try to sneak a peek at whatever was in them, Max would growl, and then Dexter would hide under the kitchen table waiting for another opportunity… This escalated into an all out scuffle where Max actually nipped at Dexter. Keep in mind that the two have spent lots of time together and have never had any issues before…

So now Dexter is terrified of Max and Max is confused. He wants to follow the little dog around and the little dog just wants to run away. It’s so not good…. But pretty funny to watch.

Blogorhythm

So blogging for me usually means I write (or at least start) the post in the evening take pictures and upload them the next morning before work, then finish the post and add the pictures in during lunch. It works for me b/c then I'm never really spending alot of time on it - just little bursts of time...

Anyways...just when I’m all about blogging again two things completely throw off my blogorhythm:

1. Our internet decided to stop and neither of us has had the time/energy to call SBC and figure out what the hell is going on.
2. I’ve been super, super busy at work so I haven’t really been able to take any type of lunch break.

I have a whole backlog of posts that I’ve started but never finished on a CD with me here today (seriously not having internet at home sucks so hard)… my plan is to stay at work late to finally get the blog going again… we’ll see how far I get but be prepared for a whole slew of posts right around 6:00 tonight.

You have been warned. :-)