Ha. I asked Bonez to move a couple o' pix from the camera to our site so that I could blather on about my knitting... again. He kindly did so and had saved the pics under the title you see above. Heck, who was I to argue. I couldn't come up with anything better, so there it is. A nondescript yet correct title. Wo0t.
(Thanks, sug'. I lurve u.)
Okay, really this is about me knitting. It's a lot slower than it was when I was unemployed, er... "between contracts", but I still crank out knitted objects, albeit slowly.
First off, I joined the Trek Along With Me along back in... well, never mind that. I had trouble starting any Trekking socks and couldn't get into the grove. They're worked on zeros, and although this isn't such a huge jump from 1s it seemed like it for me.
I took the sock to work and would methodically work on it during my indulgent 30-minute knitting breaks. (I eat lunch at my desk and continue to work, but will break for knitting. Outside. In the heat. And trust me, it's a relief from the frigid, A/C-induced temps of the office.) 30 minutes doesn't give one a lot of progress, but a few rows at a time and -POW- I was at the toe decreases. Which gave me fits because apparently I am mathematically brain-stumped.
But third times a charm, and I got that sock done and Bonez lurves it! Phew. Unfortunately, it is only one sock and the fella' has two feet. So I suppose knitting a second sock is the easiest of the two options. I have yet to cast on those other 80 stitches needed to get started, but I promise I will... soon.
Stats: Matt's Trekking Sock. Trekking color #93; oatmeals and grays. Modified Thuja pattern from Knitty. Knit on one, 32" Addi Turbo size US#0 (2.0 mm). 80 stitches for the leg and 70 for the foot.
Also in that picture (to the right), there's a finished dishcloth. The garage sale MDK ball band dishcloth, or warshcloth as it's likening to be called. I knit it to the pattern's full size, but thought it was way too huge for me to ever use on an elephant, let alone its dishes. So I ripped it back a few rows to something a little more feasible. Of course, C tells me afterwards that it'll shrink a great deal after the first warsh. Oh.
In the not FO pile, I've been working on a summer (all-season in TX) sweater. It's the Tivoli sweater (which is the Picovoli sweater without the picot edging. I'm using Reynolds Santana in color #24 Sages. I'm liking it a lot, and am ignoring the fact that I shouldn't be wearing horizontal stripes.
And lastly (but never, ever leastly), I'm working on a Trekking (color 108) sock for moi. I'm following the RPM pattern from Knitty suggested to me by a fellow SnBer, Kevin. (Thanks!) I don't think that I would've tried this pattern on my own. Although I luv me some Socks That Rock, the pictured socks' colors and striping were fighting for attention with the pattern and they both lost. But I'm enjoying it with my subtle Trekking, and have gotten a lot of good comments from other knitters, too.
I hope to have more FOs to show off soon, and I am more than ready to get a pair of socks up on larger needles - even 1s!
Later, 'gators.
In order to celebrate the heat of July, Nanc and I are having a garage sale today.
If you're in the neighborhood, stop on by!
So, I was talking to Rachel the other night and I told her that we were getting ready to have a garage sale this weekend. She said, "oh, I hate garage sales, it's easier just to donate everything to Goodwill and write it off." It's true, there is a lot of work to putting together a garage sale, but me, I like 'em.
I like meeting the people and seeing our treasured thrift score items find new homes. I like the guy who smiled at the Fonzie 8-track in the 25 cent bin, but then decided on purchasing a Darth Vader figure. Or the lady who was happy to buy our collection of Calvin and Hobbes books. Or the pop culture guy who was more than happy to buy the Sugar Bears and Johnny Whittaker LPs. Or my lunchboxes that found a good home with a friend.
I also really like the actual physical transaction of goods for cold, hard cash. Many weeks can go by without actually dealing with cash. Everything is done on plastic imaginary money any more. Aside from being a stripper, how many other chances do you have to work with large stacks of one and five dollar bills?
Of course, as my sister states, there are many things to dislike about the garage sales as well. Yesterday, somebody "repriced" a hand mixer from $3 to $1 on the sly. That boggles my mind. If she had asked, would we have reduced the price? Maybe. She will be cursed by bad thrift karma now, all for $2.
Then there's the sitting and waiting in the hot. Right now it is almost 9 a.m. and the temperature is already hovering around 90 degrees, and it's probably going to get up to 105 today. So, I should probably put the laptop back in the house and get on with the sweating.
We are also re-thinking the g-sale on a Sunday thing right now. We live in God's country in North Dallas, approximately 2 miles from at least 5-10 of those insanely huge mega-churches. We haven't had a whole lot of traffic yet today. Hopefully it will pick up once the Godless masses (TM) awaken.
The coolest thing I learned, was a great way to make garage sale signs. Take a standard posterboard and fold it in half, and decorate both sides. Then place a brick in a brown paper grocery sack and staple to posterboard to the top of the bag, making a quick wind-resistant two-sided sign.
Gotta go, we've got our first customers of the day. Maybe they're Seventh Day Adventists
Fast moving cars in the distance traveling on a heavily trafficked route. Tall buildings of varying heights and businesses. Professionals walking back from late lunches. Cars, quiet and still, gathering heat in an uncovered parking lot. Manicured lawns and landscaped trees tended by strangers.
Sitting in a meeting today, I watched a helicopter take off and a people mover glide past while two businessmen discussed details of some random process. All this activity and inactivity doesn't touch me as I sit in air conditioned boredom.
Sandy has been rounding up the troops to post pictures of your Saturday sky. So here are some of mine for today.
When I got up this morning, there was nothing to the sky. No clouds, no wind, nothing but blue. Which, although it sounds pretty, is not the best sky in a place where it's hot.. a lot. Also, kind of boring to take a picture of.
But later this afternoon and evening, the sky became a bit more eventful. In fact, we got some rain. Sure, nothing like what's been hitting the northeast, but any and every rain drop is welcome here. We're in drought season already and everything is dry.
I think I was able to capture some nice sky with the storm clouds moving in and the sun setting. Besides, soon enough I was chased inside by big, fat rain drops. And really, I'm okay with that.