A Quick Break from Studying...

As far as I can tell environmental law is even more confusing than tax, but since I think I've sorted out how the Clean Water Act works and I just can't stand the thought of reading the word "superfund" one more time I'm taking a quick break to present these socks, my one and only knit Christmas gift this year.

Knitting so many gifts last year was a pain. So this year I decided to limit it to one gift that I really wanted to make. Plain black socks were not the most exciting knit ever, but I think the recipient might get more use of these than if I had used a more fun color or pattern.

But also... I tired spinning! After spending a significant amount of time watching videos on youtube I was able to make my very first hand spun yarn. It's been washed and dried since this picture was taking, but is still waiting for me to wind it up and, of course, make something with it.

Here At Last!

Everytime I look at the Ravelry page for my pattern it makes me happy, and when I see that someone has actually queued it I do a little happy dance. So far three people have queued it, which makes me immensely happy. I'm hoping to write more patterns in the future. I have a bunch of ideas I just need the time and the yarn to actually put all this stuff together.

Knitting-wise I sadly have no pictures of my current project, a pair of up-town boot socks for myself using what is probably my favorite budget sock yarn, Plymouth's Happy Feet. But I do have pictures of a lovely package I received the other day.

These are Three Irish Girls Adorn Sock in Georgia Peach and Carrick. I ordered this way back in August and was afraid for the longest time that my order was lost. Several emails later I discovered that everyone else was just ordering from Three Irish Girls at the same time and everything got backlogged. It was a long wait but I'm in love the Georgia Peach colorway, its so pretty! And well I just had to buy it since I was born in Georgia. The yarn itself is squishy and lovely and I desperately want to cuddle it whenever I see it. Also the gals at Three Irish Girls threw in a coupon for free shipping and a sweater stone so I'm pretty pleased despite the wait.

Once I'm done with my current socks and my Christmas knitting, I'm considering making the Knotty or Knice socks with the Georgia Peach. The Carrick has no particular fate yet, but I'm just pleased its finally here.

The Better Baby Booties

At last here's the pattern for baby booties I made for a charity auction. These are a seaming and grafting free bootie that are very easy and quick to make. They require only fairly basic skills like decreasing, knitting in the round, and picking up stitches so knitters of almost any skill level can make them. Enjoy and happy knitting!


Materials

1 skien Blue Sky Cotton, or other worsted weight yarn

(Note: This pattern does not use an entire skien and is a good project for using up odd bits of yarn.)

Set of 5 Size 3 DPNs

Gauge

4.5 sts = 1 in

Gauge is not critical as this pattern can be easily adjusted to fit a smaller or larger foot.

Directions

Sole

• Cast on 9 sts. Knit these 9 sts in stockinette stitch for 29 rows slipping the first st of each row. Piece should measure about 4 inches (Note: If you would like a smaller or larger bootie simply change the length of the sole and adjust the number of stitches you pick up in the next step.)

Instep

• Using a new needle pick up and knit 15 stitches along the long edge of the sole. This is now needle 2

• Using another needle pick up and knit 9 stitches along short edge. This is now needle 3

• Using another needle pick up and knit 15 stitches along the other long edge. This is now needle 4. There should be 48 sts total

• Knit all sts in the round until piece measures 1" from edge where stitches were picked up.

Welt

• Knit the 9 sts of needle 1. Purl back across the same 9 sts.

• Row 1: k2tog using the first stitches on needle 1 and 4, k7, ssk using last stitch of needle 1 and first stitch of needle 2

• Row 2: purl

• Repeat rows 1 and 2 until only 32 sts remain

Cuff

• Resume knitting remaining sts in the round in 1X1 rib until ribbing measures 2 inches.

• Loosely bind off and weave in ends.

  

Tiny

The month of October was taken up with making baby things, and I have to admit baby items are pretty freakin cute. They're so little. First I made a hat and booties for my cousin and his wife who are expecting their first at the end of the month. I still need to put the package in the mail, but this should be one cozy little baby.

Yarn: Mission Falls Superwash Merino- 1 skein was just barely enough for both items. I had to shorten the cuff of the booties in order to finish them. But I think they came out cute, and they're so tiny which makes them even more adorable.

Hat Pattern: Sweet and Simple Baby Hat

Bootie Pattern: One Strand Booties

Then there are these little cuties...

I made these for a fundraising auction hosted by the law school's public interest group. They do this every year to raise money for summer grants to students doing public interest work. The knitting group decided to put together a baby set to donate for the auction, and I volunteered to make booties.

I had not been entirely pleased with my first pair of booties since they required grafting on the bottom. I set out to find a new pattern that didn't required any seaming or grafting, and could not find exactly what I wanted by searching around on Ravelry. After some contemplation I came up with these. A bootie that is completely free of seaming and grafting and requires only that you weave in two ends to finish. The skills needed for this are all pretty basic too, picking up stitches, decreasing, and knitting in the round. Overall I am quite pleased with my design and feel rather clever. Once I take some better pictures I plan to put together a nice pretty pattern to release it.

It's getting looooong...

But it's not done yet. As you can see the scarf is coming along nicely and will be done shortly thus giving me a finish date weeks before my brother's bday. (YES!!)

What's next? I've had this single of Mission Falls 136 Merino Superwash for almost a year and have been unsure what to do with it. But I at last have plan. I'm making this little lovely into a baby hat for my cousin and his wife who are due in November. I like the gender neutral green for a baby, and its machine washable, so perfect! I still need to pick out a pattern though so let me know if you have any suggestions!

FO: Ubdulating Rib Socks!

I seem to be in a sock mood of late so when I finished my last pair I soon cast on another pair, and finished them just yesterday.

This is the Undulating Rib socks in A Piece of Vermont's wool/bamboo sock yarn. Unlike my last pair of socks I love this pattern and yarn combination. The bold rib pattern works well with the muted pinks, purples, and grays in this yarn. I often had to stop knitting just so that I could admire how pretty this is. Can anyone tell I am totally in love with these socks? Because I am. These are easily my favorite pair to date. These are also my fifth pair for myself which means I am only more pairs of socks away from my goal of having enough handknit socks for everyday of the week, awesome!

But alas I must take a break from working towards my goal. For one thing I'm out of sock yarn, but also I have other knitting that needs to get done. Like making this yarn into a scarf for my brother's birthday in October.

I had best get knitting :)

Knitting News: Knitting Up a Poem

Recently, I decided to add a news filter for knitting to my google reader so that in addition to my regular reading I can see what sort of knitting stories are out there. Today I came across a story from the Guardain about the Poetry Society in the UK literally knitting a poem in honor of their 100th year.

This sounds like a pretty awesome and I can't wait to see the results, which will be unveiled in October. Apparently, they're still accepting help too so if anyone is interested you can head over the Poetry Society's website here, (they're taking crochet letters as well) and also check out the Ravelry group for people particpating here.

You can also read the poem that inspired this projet, "How to Knit a Poem" by Gwyneth Lewis, on the Poetry's Society's website here.

Summer Knittin' & a FO

The past few weeks have been incredibly busy. I have two weeks left at my summer job, I've moved, and of course I've been knitting. I even finished these socks as part of the Sock Knitter's Anonymous July Challenge

Pattern: Show Off Stranded Socks by Anne Campbell
Yarn: Aisling Yarn in Being There that I got from the CT sheep and wool festival

Overall, I liked the pattern and I'm happy with my socks. I'm still not convinced that this yarn and pattern combo are ideal but I didn't feel like ripping them out and just went with it. I think a yarn with shorter lengths of color would take better advantage of the stranded pattern and provide more visual interest. The long colorway here results in the strands blending in and not popping like they should. I did enjoy the different heel construction though. It was the first time I made socks without doing the conventional heel flap so it good learning experience for me.

In other news the new Fall Twist Collective is out, and I love soo many of the patterns in this issue. I don't even know where I would start if I was going to make one of the sweaters, they'll all beautiful.

FOs: Cape Cod Edition

I had a super relaxing 4th of July weekend with my Robbie and his family (Many thanks again to Doreen for letting us come!). It was sunny for the first time in weeks, AND Robert even humored me by letting me take a picture of him with my current sock project at the beach. The pattern is the Show-Off Stranded Sock by Ann Campbell and I'm using the Aisling yarn I got from the CT Sheep and Wool Festival.

I've been rather productive in the past week. I finished my Froot Loop Socks, and while I didn't finish them on the Cape I did pack them and take a picture from the top deck of the condo. I really liked this pattern. It's so cute and easy. I also liked the yarn a lot. Plymouth Happy Feet is such a great deal, it only cost about $10 for enough yarn to make a pair of socks. The yarn held up great, is nice and squishy, and machine washable! (but I have not yet tired to wash them so who know how they'll hold up)

I did finish one project over the holiday, my very first crochet project! I recently decided to learn crochet and with some help from my mom and her 30 year old learn to crochet book I was gone.

I made the one skein scraf from the "Happy Hooker" and used a skein of Patons Classic Mernio I had sitting around so it was even a stash-busting project, score! I don't think crochet will replace knitting for me, but I feel crochet has its uses so its good that I learned it.

FO: Retro Reduc Shrug!

At last I finished something! I was right, its the retro redux shrug, below is me modeling with my sister's dog Maddie who didn't really feel like being in the picture. (Maddie is a little camera shy.)

I made the smallest size using Berroco Love It. I didn't make any modifications except that the collar isn't as long as it should be since I ran out of yarn. I am very happy with the way that this shrug turned out. The pattern is so easy. The shaping is done just by changing the needle size so its very easy. The most annoying part was picking up all the stiches for the collar. I had to redo it a couple times to get the right number, but once ?I got past that it was a breeze to finish.

I also liked the yarn. Its soft and easy to work with, but it can be a little splitty at times. I'd use it again, but the woman at Saybrook Yarn told me that its being discontinued so I'm not sure I'll be able to unless I stock up soon.

But regardless I am very happy with how this turned out and it'll be perfect for summer- if summer ever actually gets here.

WIPS and Gratuitous Sheep

Yikes, its been so long. Since last time I've had finals and started working full time so things have been busy. I've been knitting but sadly I haven't finished anything. But soon I should have a few FOs to post about like these:

Those are my central park cardi, a retro redux shrug, and the second froot loops sock respectively. I'm betting that the shrug will be the first one done. I only need to knit ribbing of the collar and weave in a few ends. The central park cardi is done with the knitting but we're fighting. I got rather frustrated with the seaming and thus decided it was time for a break. I also figured it could wait since the weather would be getting warm soon, but I may have jinxed New England because its been cool and rainy here recently and the forecast for the next week is more of the same.

Oh well, hopefully it'll get nice again soon. In the mean time here's a random picture of sheep from the CT Sheep and Wool Festival last month (which was a beautiful day)

knitting on airplanes = ok

Summer is upon, as are summer travel plans for some.  Thus now seems like an apprioprate time to share this post from the Evolution of Security blog, which Robert sent me yesterday.  Evolution of Security is the TSA's blog, and based on a quick persuing is actually fairly interesting and down to earth. 

The post explains that a few items commonly thought to be forbidden are actually allowed onto airplanes, such as knitting needles, nail clippers, and corckscrews (but only the kind without the little knife).  And apparently needles made of any material are allowed.  Personally, I became rather less concerned about being allowed to bring my knitting needles on board when I got through secruity with a pair of scissors and a pocket knife.  But that may just be because I don't look particularly threatening.  But anyway, feel free to break out those lovely metal needles and click away as you put your summer travel time to good use!

What to do?

I have a bit of problem that I'm going to confess: I have a lot of stuff.  Somehow over my (almost) 24 years I've managed to accumlate quite a bit in terms of wordly possessions.   In anticipation of moving sometime this summer I have slowly been going through my room trying to weed out things I don't need.  I threw out that binder of papers from the write on competition last summer, I have a bag of clothes ready to be donated, and I listed a bunch of my old college books for sale on amazon.

But then I come to my knitting.  I have a couple of old projects that are finished but never reason.  This sweater in particular comes to mind:

I finished it the fall of 2007 and have woren it maybe once, and I was at home by myself.  The only reason I made this sweater was to use up the yarn.  This yarn has lived a very toturted existence.  I first made a sweater with but then realized I didn't have enough of it.  I then made a vest with it and it was much too big.  And since completeing this third incarnation it has sat around in my room and somehow developed a mysterious hole in the collar.  

Sadly, I don't really like this poor sweater.  The yarn is itchy and rough, a poor choice made when I was began knitting.  The sweater isn't all that flattering and doesn't fit well.  So what do I do?  What does a knitter do when they have a completed project that they just don't like but have no need or use for the yarn? Should I toss it the donate bag? Probably but I feel bad tossing something I made.

So I'm curious what do other people do in this situation?  Toss the unwanted project and move on or hold onto it in case someday another possible use is thought up?

Happy Spring!

One of the unfortunate aspects of spring semester is that finals time starts just as the weather becomes nice. So I often get stuck in the library while everyone I know who is not in law school goes out and enjoys the sunshine and warmth. We had a beautiful weekend in Connecticut, and I just couldn't spend it couped up. Saturday morning was filled with yarn and sheepy goodness because Robert and I went to the Sheep and Wool Festival. I had a great time and succomded to the prettiness of some of the yarn (but I am pleases to say that I stayed under the budget I set for myself)

First up, I got sock yarn from Aisling Yarns in "Being There." The booth had a lot of great colors but I ended up going with this one because I didn't have anything else quite like it in my statsh already.

I also picked up two huge hanks of sportweight alpaca from Times Remembered, which is based in Slate Hill, NY. I am such a sucker for alpaca, its just soooo soft that I can't resist it. I'm thinking of making the Gathered Pullover with this.

But of course this weekend was not entirely dedicated to buying. I had plently of car time to spend knitting thanks to the Sheep and Wool Festival and then an improptu trip to the shore to see Rob's parents because it was just too nice to be in Hartford. I spent the time working on my Froot Loop socks, which I am quite pleased with. This pattern is super addictive, I love the cute little cables and O's that it forms.

Oh and yes I did manage to get some study time in too.

Summer Dreamin'

Way back when at Christmas my mom and brother gave me the same book by accident. My brother offered to exchange the copy he bought for something else. After a month or two I figured he'd forgotten about it completely, but then along comes Easter and my brother gave me the copy of Lace Style that I requested.

I've been seriously covenanting some of the patterns in this book for awhile and am psyched to have it. I'm thinking the retro redux shrug, in maybe a cotton-wool blend, paired with this adorable dress from Heather Ross would be super cute.












Perfection. The perfect outfit for cool summer evenings on the Cape, strolling along the beach or downtown Hyannis with the man. Le sigh, I totally wish that it was summer already!

I've got a new toy...

It's a knit kit!  I first found out about this handy little device on the Twist blog and instantly wanted one. 

Well, I got my wish on Friday.  Robert brought me lunch at work and surprised me by bringing this in addition to my falafel wrap.  (I know, he's awesome)

I already like my knit kit so much better than the little pouch I usually carried with me. For one thing, it is much attractive then the kind of ugly pouch I used.  But more importantly, it's just so organized, and it has everything in it that I usually need: scissors, crochet hook, tape measure, etc. All in one cute, convenient, little container.  

I believe Robert got mine from Sit n' Knit in Bloomfield in case anyone is curious.

By the way, I did finish Robert's socks and he has worn them a few times.  I just need to remember to take a picture of them sometime so that I can post about them.

Another Option

I've recently thought of a third option of what my next project should be. My best friend Rachel is getting married in October and her shower is going to be in August. I bought some white JaggerSpun Zephyr not too long after she got engaged with the intention of making her a shawl. But I have not yet decided on a pattern. Currently I'm thinking of either the Autumn Vines shawl from Living in Stitches or the Hanging Vines Stole from Heartstring Fiber Arts.

Here are the designers pictures for anyone not on Ravelry, Autumn Vines on the left and Hanging Vines on the right. The right one is a blanket size version, so obviously the shawl I make would be significantly smaller.

















I feel like starting Rachel's shawl would be the best project to start since it has a deadline. I am incredibly bad about meeting deadlines (still working on Robert's socks, but I am about to start the toe decreases) so the earlier I start the better. So votes or other suggestions?

Random Sheepy Video

This is not directly related to knitting but it does involve sheep and herders doing some pretty cool stuff.  Its pretty impressive.

Extreme Sheep LED Art

To My Robbie...

Happy Birthday & Anniversary!!!

Today is Robert's birthday and tomorrow marks our one year anniversary.  Robert often likes to tease me that he had to work harder to get me than any other girl in the past because it took me awhile to realize that I liked him.  But this marks the time when I finally came around and succomed to the charms of the man.  (Yesterday he asked to be called the man rather than the boy, I figure I should humor him at least for today)

Sadly his socks are not yet ready for either of these occassions and I already gave him his other present, which was a replacement for his favorite hat that was found on the sameday that the new one arrived.  But I do have another surprise in mind for him for later.  

Tomorrow is also my sister's birthday, so Happy Birthday Karen!!

btw: the top picture is of us from a camping trip at Mongaup Pond in New York last fall.  It's very pretty up there and we're going back for Memorial Day this year :).

All I Wanna do is Play With Yarn

It's spring break right now and what I really should do is start some outlines for class and go to my externship this afternoon.  But its just so tempting to sit around, knit, and relax.  Earlier this week the boy and I spent a few days in Vermont.  We visited some of his friends in Burlington and then drove to Okemo for a few days of skiing.  Which was awesome because it snowed Monday and the mountain was virtually empty.

On Sunday, we lesiruely made our way down to Okemo via Route 7.  Its a pretty drive and I highly recommend it to anyone in the area and with some extra time.  Along the way Robert basically made it his mission to find an open yarn store for me to visit.  We eventually found Vermont Beads and Fiber in Middlebury.  A very cute little store where I got this pretty skien of sock yarn.  

The socks for my boy are coming along nicely.  I will soon be starting the heel of the second sock so its possible that I may actually be able to give him the socks on his birthday or our anniversary.  

Since I'm so close to finishing the socks I've started to contmeplate what my next project should be.  I'm a little socked out right now so my new pink yarn will have to wait.  I'm considering the Eyelet Cardigan from Blue Skys Alpaca.  I already have the yarn for this and it would make a cute little spring cardigan.  I could also make Icarus out of some pretty light blue Malabrigo lace weight yarn I have in my stasth.  There are other options too but these two are the most appealing to me right now.  Any thoughts or suggestions for making this choice? Or maybe even another option entirely?

On Snow Days and Self Protraits

Wow did it snow yesterday! As a result of this late season storm I didn't have work in the morning or class in the afternoon.  I did decidate a little bit of this newly found free time to studying but I also managed to finish my handspun mohair scarf.  It turned out cute and is of course super soft and warm.  I'm not used to handspun yarn so this was a little hard for me to work with, but I am pleased with the result.

This is not the most inspring photo ever I know.  I spent a few minutes trying to take a photo of me wearing it but I ran into a problem I imagine many a knitter has: trying to take a decent picture of your self.  I love my little camera but since I can't see the screen and take the photo at the same time I usually have a wierd look on my face or something.  Here are some photos that could have been good but just didn't come out quiet right...

The first one is too dark to actually see the scraf.  In the second I have more hair than face which makes me look like a Cousin It wannabe, and the last one is blurry and washed out.  I really should just make the boy my photographer but he's at work right now.

Speaking of pretty yarn from small producers, the Twist Collective has an article written by a yarn farmer in their new issue, which I found to be very interesting.  

FO: Blueberry Socks

Next to my family's house in Georgia there was a blueberry bush that seperate our yard from the neighbors.  I always liked to pick the blueberries during the summer.  They were a beautiful deep blue and it fasniated me that the juice was purple.  My mom would often make muffins using what I picked.

The entire time that I was making these socks the color reminded of blueberries.  The yarn just has the prettist variation between deep blues and purples like the berries I picked when I was a kid.  I am quite pleased with them, they're simple, warm, and cozy.  I thought about using some sort of pretty pattern but I started these just after finals so I wanted something simple to work on. 

Next up, I know I should start Robert's socks but I'm feeling a little tired of tiny needles.  Instead I'm going to make something using this handspun yarn that his mom gave me for Christmas, possibly Glampyre's new Reclamation Scraf.  

The yarn it from a family friend who owns alpacas and spins and sells her own yarn under the label Cold Spring Alpaca. This is a woman that I definately would like to meet sometime (I'd also love to meet the alpacas) but for now I'm just happy to have some of her beautiful yarn.   

In Need of a Good Home

So that hat I mentioned recently is now complete! Yay! That's one project off my incomplete list.  It's a modified turn a square.  I cast on fewer stitiches and did not increases after the ribbing. But I currently have no idea what to do with it.  I perfer things that are more girly and the boy's head is a little too big for it so the poor little hat is just going to have to hang out until I either remember to give it to its original intended recipient or think of someone else.

Next up are my blue socks, which only need to graft together to make them complete. I always forgot how to do it though so I need to look up kitchener stitch again before I do it.  (I really like the tutorial they have of it on knitty if anyone else has this problem.)

Recently, I did something that was not in keeping with my goal of reducing the amount of yarn I have, but was necessary for another purpose.  I bought yarn,

The boy's birthday is in March and I really want to make him a pair of socks.  He loves toe socks so I may try to make those for him, but I am a little concerned about that prospect.  I want these to be finished on time and I'm afaird that knitting toes may be a stumbling block.  So I may knit him a pair of daigonal cross rib socks from Favorite Socks instead. 

In Defense of Knitting: Why Knitting Really is a Habit for the Frugal

This past New Years Eve I spent with my boyfriend at his father's house.  It was a nice relaxed evening, complete with a fire while it snowed.  We made a big dinner, hung out with his family and then went for atv ride in the freezing cold.  In the boy's family it is well known that I knit, and at one point during an overall pleasant evening I got into a rather heated debate with his father's girlfriend.  

Beth was asking me about knitting and how could I make myself things, isn't it cheaper just to buy them, how do I have time, wouldn't my time be better spent studying, etc.  I may be in law school but its still hard to argue with someone who's feeling the effects of multiple champagne cocktails.  This discussion bothered me.  Yes I may spend more money on yarn for a sweater than I would on a sweater that I buy at the mall, but I still consider the yarn to be a better investment.  There are a couple of reasons for this, and I just want to lay them out for all those naysayers out there.

1. Better Quality

Comparing a hand knit item to something you buy at Marshalls is like comparing apples and oranges.  They're both knits but they are in entirely different categories.  The clothing that I buy is no where as nice as what I make.  That sweater from Ann Taylor Loft may have cost only $30 but its not 100% wool.  At best its a wool synthetic blend and it was probably made in a sweatshop in Thailand.  

The proper comparison to make would be items from upscale brands that are made of natural fibers.  A sweater from Banana Republic can easily cost $100, but I can make a very similar sweater out of wool or another natural fiber for half that. To me this is frugal because it can save money to have nice clothes that will last a long time rather than having to replace them every year.  And I know that my sweater wasn't made by exploiting people as an added bonus. 

2.  Better Gifts

We all know someone that is really hard to shop for.  One such person would be my brother.  He has everything, and what he wants I generally cannot afford.  So to spare my wallet and still give my brother something nice I like to knit gifts for him.  Knitting gifts is time consuming and its best to make sure you're giving to someone who will appreciate your work.  But with proper planning you can give that hard to shop for person a special gift for under $25.  For my brother I tend to go with socks, a nice skein of superwash yarn costs me $20 and my brother has warm feet for the winter.  It's win-win. 

3. Income Potential

Most people don't use their knitting skills to make income, but it is possible.  There are many knitter who design and sell patterns and other who sell their work on sites like etsy.  I realize that doing these things will not make me or most other knitters rich, but it could help offset the cost of yarn and needles.  And it's good to remind those "Beths" out there that knitting is a skill that has money making potential.

4. Enjoyment

This is the most important one as far as I'm concerned.  I'll concede that it is significantly less time consuming to buy a sweater than to make one, and maybe I would have done better in my Business Organizations class if I didn't knit during it.  But the time commitment is really not an issue for me because I enjoy knitting.  Its relaxing and gives me something to do with my hands when I'm feeling fidgety.  I honestly do not think that I would work or study more if I gave up knitting.  No one can study all the time but at least when I'm knitting I'm being productive.  I'm making something useful rather than bumming around the Internet watching videos on youtube.  And being productive even in this small way and the enjoyment knitting brings makes it a worthwhile use of time and money.

The Agony and the Ecstasy of Sock Knitting

I have a conflicted relationship with sock knitting.  Much like fellow knitting law student Emilee, I'm not really a huge fan of knitting socks.  I find them to be fiddely.  Sure its easy enough to make the cuff and then flap but then you need to remember the proper way to turn a heel and pick up stitches and then decrease those extra stitiched you just picked up.  Now I'm not saying that knitting a sweater is straight forward either but at least the needles aren't so darn tiny and fragile.  I know I've bent several sets of DPNs out of shape.

But then you know wool socks and are just so nice.  They're cozy and warm.  I have one pair of socks I made that actually fits, the others suffer from gauge issues and picking up too many stitches, and I wear those socks all the time.  I'd wear them everyday if it was socially acceptable to do such a thing.  I sincerely believe that the key to happiness in a New England winter is wool socks and a good pair of boots. 

So how do I deal with my dislike of sock knitting but love of the end product?  I knit them anyway and hope that I'll learn to love the process.  I do think its growing on me.

But more importantly, does one sock count as an FO? 

Varied Interests

If you looked at my Google Reader you'd see that I have a wide variety of interests.  I have the usual assortment of news and cute baby animals.  It all started with knitting blogs of course.  That's where my true love lied.  When I started law school I decided I should start following some legal news too. But then I started to add some baking and cooking blogs.  And most recently I've started adding some personal fianance blogs.

Finanance was never really my thing.  I was raised to live frugally thanks to my mom.  But I was a history major and minored in women's students and was fortunate enough to have parents who paid for university.  I made sure to pay off my credit card each month because that's what my parents always told me too, and that was the extent of my financial know how. So I didn't really give much thought to money until recently.  The prospect of graduating law school with about $80,000 in debt made me start to think about money a bit more.  But then my boyfriend suggested that we look into buying a condo together.  And as excited as I am about this prospect it also made me realize that I needed to get my fianances together and get an idea as to what the hell is going on if we were really going to do that.  Thanks to some help from aforementioned blogs (Get Rich Slowly mostly) Im getting myself together.  I'm working towards simplifying my life by getting rid of things that I don't need and saving up for when the boy and I are ready to get a place of our own.

So in the interest of furthering these goals I'm now going to focus on finishing up projects in progress and working on things that I already have yarn for.  I don't have a huge statsh but I have enough to keep me busy for a while.  First project to tackle, that darn red and gray hat I was going to give to the boy's brother for Christmas.

Belated Postings, they're just my style

You know you can get a lot of knitting done when you knit class. I managed a project a week during November thanks to this technique and a wanning interest in federal income tax.  But thanks to my camera batteries never being charged and my own forgetfulness I have only two pictures to share and they are both of the same pattern.  The blue one was for my sister and the striped one was for the boy's brother's girlfriend.  But I haven't seen her in ages and thus have been able to give it to her and it now languishes in my bedroom waiting for a better home or use.

I have to have any FOs for the new year, but I'm working on it.  I have a pair of socks in Dream in Color Smooshy Midnight Derby that will probably be the winner of that honor.  Unless I get my act together and finish the Central Park Hoodie (which I have been working on!) but that seems doubtful.