Sycamore Grove

Only a day late.

That's Nick in front of our apartment. We actually had a snowfall on Tuesday as well as Thursday evening, but I forgot to take pictures. I hope the snow stays through Christmas, or that we get more, but I'm not holding my breath.

Indianaeponine and I went down to Mass Ave Knits today, for a meet-up of the Indiana Knits Ravelry group. It was a fun time; there were more older ladies there than I thought there'd be. I guess I still fall prey to that "the internet is a young person's game" fallacy.

I met Chris of Chris Knits, and a bunch of other lovely ladies, including one girl (I don't know her internets name and I don't want to use her real one without permission) who will be moving up to our neck of the woods come late December. Eponine and I invited her to the knitgroup and I hope she comes. She seemed really nice.

I was really good and only bought a bit of yarn, half of which was actually for the Very Mysterious Socks. I'll post some pictures of the actual yarn (pics of the projects will have to wait until after Christmas) later. I also got some pretty cream-tan-lavender-and-sky-blue Tofootsies yarn to make into an eventual pair of socks for me.

And now, some J-random pictures.

My kitties, Finn and Bran.

The Mossy Lace Scarf.

So. It's my birthday. I never know quite how to approach this, from a blogging point of view. I kind of hate it when people take the time to be megalomaniac about the whole thing. On the other hand, I also feel that this day is my day, you know? So I'll attempt to take the middle road.

I woke up early-ish this morning; I couldn't go back to sleep after Nick kissed me goodbye. Eventually I got up and did a couple of productive things, like iron some fabric that I'd washed the sizing out of, and clean up the pigsty of a house we're living in.

I also took the opportunity today to decorate a bit. We finally got our tree; what with finals and everything, I wasn't sure if we were going to get it before Christmas eve. It's currently thawing out in the corner, we'll probably finish it tomorrow. I have to figure out what exactly to put on the top. I don't know where our star went, but it's not in our Christmas decorations. We managed to lose our tree stand, too, and had to get a new one.

Nick took me out to a local sports-bar-type restaurant for dinner. They make the best hamburgers on the planet. And one of their yummy appetizers is fried pickle slices. Sounds disgusting, I know, but they're friggin' delicious.

Um, after that we stopped by Joann's to pick up a couple last minute Christmas items, and then went home to wrestle with the aforementioned Christmas tree.

I guess I didn't have a very exciting birthday, huh? That's okay, though. I'm so tired lately that having a nice relaxing day was beautiful.

Okay, so I'm going to try to wrap up a few finished objects that I've been promising pictures of for a while. Look at that, only out of school for a few days and already my grammar goes to shit.

First up, my loverly Poison Ivy Socks:

And a close-up shot of the stitch pattern:

Pattern: Hedera by Cookie A.
Yarn: Rowan 4-Ply Soft, colourway 337
Needles: KnitPicks Options, size 1
Notes: I've noticed that the heel is a bit long. I think instead of a 25 row heel, if I made these again, I'd do a 15 row one. The way the heel is constructed, though, with the s1 p1 (as opposed to the s1 k1) is really neat and easier. I also really loved the twisted ribbing. It looks so clean and neat.

Next up, my Misty Valley Socks:

Pattern: Spey Valley Socks from Knitting on the Road by Nancy Bush
Yarn: Brown Sheep Wildfoote Luxury Sock, colourway SY-29 Tomcat
Needles: KnitPicks Options, size 1
Notes: I like the ribs, uneven ribbing always appeals to me. The Vikkel braid is hard; I had to do it, like, five times, and I'm still not completely satisfied with it. After the first sock, the Vikkel braid went easier. I would make these again, I think, in a solid yarn. The purl "flower" motif on the cuff didn't show up very well with the tweedy yarn. I'm pleased with these, although they seemed very tight at the beginning. After a day wearing them, the yarn seemed to relax a bit and are quite comfortable. I think if I made them again, not only would I make them with a solid yarn, I'd make the leg a bit longer; they're about an inch shorter than where I like them.

And finally, remember my Husband Sweater? Yeah, at least it fits me.

Pattern: Improvised pattern based on one I made with my Knitware program.
Yarn: KnitPicks Wool of the Andes, colourway Fern
Needles: KnitPicks Options, size 7
Notes: I'm glad it fit one of us. I started it last winter, and I didn't work on it over the summer. I wish I'd just finished it, though. I'm okay with this sweater, but I wish it'd fit Nick. I'm already planning another one for him, though.

Okay, I think that's it. There's some other stuff still on the needles. One of them I can't talk about because it's a surprise for Nick. That one's almost done, though, and I'll have pictures after Christmas. The scarf is almost done; all it needs is the second border and a nice stiff blocking.

And as a final gift, I'll leave you with a sneak peak of the Very Mysterious Socks (with Finn assisting):

I am currently without internet on my computer. I'm writing this post from Nick's computer, which is working fine. My computer just won't recognize any wireless network in the area (to the point of not even detecting them).

Guys, I think my computer's fucked.

On the brighter side of things, I finally got my Christmas present. A Sony alpha 10.2 megapixel digital SLR. And for those of you who don't speak geek, it's a really cool camera.

So... at the very least, when I get back, I'll be bursting with awesome photos.

Okay. Seems it was a false alarm. Sometimes I put my tablet on the laptop keyboard when I'm not using it. Apparently I managed to put it down just right, so that the little wireless button got turned off. No wonder I couldn't get it to work.

I did just about everything to get it to work, and ended up calling my father the computer genius. He said, after a long-suffering pause, "Well, did you try pushing the little wireless button?"

And then I felt like a big idiot. In my defense, however, Nick couldn't figure it out either. We defragged, we did the disk cleanup, we transferred my lesser used files to CD. And it all boiled down to "did you push the little wireless button?"

Oh, well. As promised, I do have some pictures.

The Very Mysterious Sock. Which turns out to be (half of) a pair of Broadripples.

Now, that may not look so impressive, but wait until I lay a bit of "actual pixel size" on you:

Yeah, huh?

And some gratuitous kitty shots, because I can.