Two posts in one day :)

Here's the blanket so far. Um- you can see this blanket as a LONG way to go. The side of each square is about 2 inches. I'm thinking I'll probably do 20 squares across for the base row, this only has 6 so far. Every 20 or so squares I'm going to do a "double" (which has the area of 4 squares) like the rainbow one in this picture.

And a sneak peak of the front entry way- Kevin is in the process of grouting it.

Do you like the diamond tile? Kevin thought to add that detail and I think it looks nice- and his cuts are SO good.

I finished my Tiger Socks quite awhile ago, but never took pictures (so they sat in the living room waiting for me to take one...). I finally asked Kevin today to take them for me (so that I could put the socks away!) and he took a few- with Elsa's help :)

I am really loving these socks. They practically knit themselves, besides the fact that it took me quite a few tries to get the right gauge. They aren't as thick as I thought they would be -the yarn is at least sportweight, and possibly DK- but they are really warm and cozy. The calf increases went well, but I probably should have decreased more at the top, and yet they stay up. (A constant problem with my handknit socks is that they fall down and bunch.) The pattern breaks up once the calf shaping starts, but I still think they look really good. One of the two socks has a gigantic pool of black on the back, but honestly, no one will ever see these- they are just for me. People might see the feet of them, if I wear them with pants, but I'm not a knee-high with a skirt kind of person. I wish I was. I love knee highs.

I've made the best progress on my sock yarn blanket as I could have. You'd think the huge amount of socks I've made I'd have lots and lots of leftovers, but without duplicating them (because I don't want to so early in the blanket) 15 or so squares is nothing in the grand scheme. I took a yarn blank and made it into mini skeins and dyed it up all different ways so I could do more knitting while I'm waiting for swaps. So far I've finished knitting 22 small squares and 1 large square (that takes up the space of 4 squares). I'm estimating the need for 800 (small) squares to make it large lap blanket size.

I went to Yoga yesterday, so won't be going today. It was a different instructor this time- the owner of the studio. She teaches a good class. I felt really badly because through her talking through the class she suggested I sink lower in ackward pose, and well I was already fighting the knee pain so I shook my head "no" and she kind of added "and she says no" and kept moving with the class. As I left class she asked if I had injuries (which I detailed to the other instructor) and I told her I felt so badly and had meant to say something to her (which I was planning on doing before she started the conversation) I felt SO bad ignoring a sugestion in the first class I've taken from her. I appreciate critiques and don't want instructors to be hands off - because I want to do this well, but I can't squat as low as most of the people my age do in ackward pose, and I can't even do camel pose. I'm really enjoying the classes at this studio. My 7-day pass is over and I went ... twice. (And wouldn't have except I replaced my Sunday class with Saturday because it was "free") I just can't go all the way across town on weeknights- I'm too tired. I think what I'm going to do is get a 10-class card to this studio and the one I like less here in Coralville, then I'll do one during the week in town and one during the weekend in Iowa City.

Mini Yarn Skeins!

What's in the picture? Teeny tiny skeins of yarn. Aren't they cute?

And why are there so many of them?

Well I've taken on a new "lifetime achievement project" now that Daffodil Design is done. I'm going to work on a sock yarn blanket made up of mitred squares approxmately 2 inches each. These mini skeins are for a swap- where other people will send me their sock yarn, so that I won't have so many repeats in the blanket. It will take almost 1,000 squares I think to make this blanket a blanket size, so I can't do that on my own.

The assorted skeins are just 2.5 grams- teeny tiny, but a square only takes around 2 grams. The larger skeins are 5 grams, they can be used by people making bigger squares, or make 2 squares. They are part of a dye your own swap. I cannot wait to see what I get back! I love hand dyed yarn.

Do you have leftover sock yarn you'd like to get rid of? I'll be happy to take it off your hands! I'm going to need all I can get, and I'd be glad to send you some assorted skeins back as a trade if you are doing the same project.

This is all because my sock drawer is filled, so I need a break from socks for awhile. I'm also thinking about starting Kevin a DNA scarf (again... the last one did not work) and taking a "Knit One Below" class at the yarn store. The classes are all done in 3 sessions, and I don't need that long to learn a technique (just show it to me in 10 minutes) but it's not too expensive, and it will be nice to socialize with other knitters.

Scarf in a Day

And not even a long day! I think this took me about 6 hours. (I posted about warping on facebook 9 hours ago, and took a yoga break, lunch break and a dinner break.)

A 10-in wide 6.5 ft scarf. It's not that soft though, so I might make it a table runner.

I used 1 skein of Red Heart "Soft" (yeah- I bought it to practice weaving, it was actually soft to the fingers- very splitty, which is WEIRD for weaving. I wouldn't knit with it) and Universal Yarns "Moods". Moods was on MAJOR sale at WEBS (yarn.com) and the color change from black to color and back again was very cool. (So that's why the "Soft" is black- I thought it would go well.

I'm very happy with the actual weaving, my selvedges are pretty even, warping only took an hour- and I used just about ever inch of both skeins. The scarf is slightly longer than I had hoped (was shooting for 6 ft) I can never calculate the shrinking/loom waste well. Oh well.

If I do wear this as a scarf it's designed to be the fold in half and slip loop through itself variety. Otherwise it pretty much eats me alive, since I'm small and it's big.

I love my Ashford Rigid Heddle. Now I need to get a reed for thinner yarns.

Now Presenting....

Daffodil Design!

It still needs to be blocked, but it will be awhile until I get to that. I hate blocking. The baptism is going to be around August, so I've got time.

I also finished my Tiger knee highs (love them- pictures soon) and one Glynis sock (hate it, not sure if I will make the other.)

Today I'm weaving.

Perhaps a better post later, I'm not sure.

Baby Legs part 2

I made legwarmers for my nephews a few weekends ago. Since they aren't my babies, I can't post pictures of them on the blog, but hopefully it's okay to post their legs to show off the warmers!

Even my 4-year old nephew loved them. He's wearing knee socks, the gray/black ones are the cuffs of two different women's socks, and the knit ones are about 8" long.

I found knee socks on sale at Target for $2, so when they are ready for longer ones, i'll be ready to make more.

Yoga!

I tried a class at a different hot yoga studio today. This time I went to Zenergi in Iowa City. Now, all my friends who live in actual cities are going to think I'm crazy, but the major downside to Zenergi is that it is like 15 minutes away. For this area- that is a really long drive, it's about as far away from my house as it can still be in and stay in the C/IC area.

Anyhow, that's the major downside. But the upsides- the studio is much less expensive than the one over near me, and even better they also give a discount for my workplace. The other nice thing- they have 60 minute classes that I can make. The studio near my house only does 60 minute classes during the workday. The normal 90 minute class is just too much for me right now, 60 minutes is perfect.

So I tried the 60 minute class and it was really nice. The heat was lower (or felt it...) and there was a lot less humidity, though still a good amount. Towards the very end of the class, I could feel the heat on my shoulders and I felt actually hot (usually I don't feel hot, just exhausted), but most of the class was just a comfortable with a lot of sweating.

So while the last class I took at the other studio I thought I was going to pass out midway through the standing poses, this class I made it through everything without any heat related problems (had some yoga related ones... I am not good at yoga). We didn't do any downward dog which always makes me feel lightheaded, so I was happy about that. At the end of the class the teacher sung the mantra (is that the right word?) and she had the most beautiful voice I've ever heard live. It was gorgeous.

I'm definetly going to give this studio a try again. They have a 60 minute class at 6:00 am, if I shower really fast I could still probably get to work at 7:30- work is just a few minutes away. It would be a tight stretch though...

For the most part, my knees didn't give me any problems. By the end when we got to camel pose I didn't do the 2nd set- sitting on my knees didn't hurt, but I can feel them getting tired and I didn't want to hurt them. My left hip is hurting pretty badly in the poses where I pull my knee to my chest (wind removing, laying spine twist), and I think I hurt my shoulders during reclining hero pose- so we'll see how that feels tomorrow...

But overall- this yoga class went very very well.

Knitting Round Up

Flat Stanley came to visit me. He picked some yarn out of the stash and made a scarf!

Pictures of projects I've talked about but never posted. Ravelry can be viewed by the public now! Hopefully these links work.

Spring Forward

Cauchy

Seascape Shawl (the Olympic project)

Where's Daffodil Design? Yeah... it's going to be awhile. The crochet edge is horribly hard. It might take me as long as the shawl did. I have to do 23 repeats of the crochet pattern, I did 2 yesterday and wanted to drive the #5 steel crochet hook through my skull. I'm going to try to do 2 more today.

Freebie

I'm in no way affiliated- but this seemed like a good deal.

Free Quench lotion:
http://www.olay.com/Club_Olay/march2010/images/Quench_Form_Club_Olay.pdf

Well, about 75 cents after tax and a stamp to mail in the rebate.

Aww spring!

Look what is growing in our yard now!


Special thanks to the previous owners for planting all this stuff!


Living room pictures coming soon. We are still missing transitions strips, but it's pretty much a room again :)

And as an added bonus: Adorable Dog Pictures!

On a side note, the adorable dog's barking interrupted the blog posting!