Spring Knitty

I love Knitty. Not every pattern that gets released there is my cup of tea, but it seems like every quarterly update has at least one or two patterns that I want to knit. I may not get around to it, but the desire is there. This spring's issue has brought with it two patterns that I'm almost positive I will knit at some point. I think my son needs a Steggie, or at least he will sometime after he's born, and given how long we have until a cold day in Austin that gives me plenty of time to complete it. I also need to knit a pair of Target Practice socks. Ever since that pattern came out a few days ago I keep going back to look at it. It looks like a blast to knit, fiddly I'm sure, but totally worth it to watch it come together.

Still In It

I did manage to complete my pair of socks for Sock Madness III Round 3 before my division filled up. On my birthday I snagged spot 11 out of the 12 available, and get to progress on to Round 4. I like my purple socks, even if they don't show off the pattern all that well.

Pardon the whiteness of my legs; I don't tan. To be more exact my skin does not tan easily when exposed to the sun, and my legs have not seen much sun lately.

Round 4 starts Thursday night, and hopefully that will keep me out of trouble. Jeff's parents are coming in town to help fix up the new house this weekend and that means extra people trying to keep me from doing things they don't think I should be doing. If I at least have a pair of socks to distract me, then maybe it won't drive me crazy when they won't let me help with painting and laying flooring. Sometimes being pregnant and having people who care about you can be a real pita.

I'd also like to take a class at Hill Country Weavers this weekend, but it costs money, and we're trying to save money for house stuff, not to mention the whole bit about inlaws coming in town. Although, that's also an excellent reason to sign up for a class that gets me out of the house for a couple of hours each day. I'll hopefully make up my mind one way or another soon, and preferably before the class fills up.

Because I Should be Knitting

I'm still in the Sock Madness competition, so I should be knitting. There are only 3 spaces left in my division and I've only got 1.25 out of 2 socks. Still, I read Julie's House Numerology post and decided that I had to do it too. I promise to go right back to knitting in a minute. This is based off the numbers on the house that we are moving too, not the rented duplex we are moving from because that would just be silly.

House Number 2
Here is a house that creates peace, harmony and balance in anyone's lives. It is a house suited for relationships, and people who are laid back and friendly. This is a great home for new lovers or people who have lived together for a long time. It will aid in the balancing of any relationship.
However sometimes we are so laid back that one may call it laziness. So don't forget to get off the sofa and DO. Do what needs to be done to fix the creaky floorboards and cracks in the pavement with this house.

Positive Colour Suggestions: Cream, Green and White.

Well thank goodness that we've picked green as one of our house colors. I don't know what would have happened otherwise. Perhaps our sloth inducing couch would raise on it's rear legs and force us into slave labor.

Get your house numerology here.

RIP Tobias

I used to have a bearded dragon named Tobias, but I always just called him Toby. Most people didn't know much about Toby, because he lived in the "guest room" so as to keep the cats from torturing him. Despite being handled frequently in his youth, and sheltered from as much stress as possible, he was never a friendly guy. He tolerated people because we were bigger than him, and we gave him food. He didn't want to hang out on your shoulder and be the cool dragon that some people are lucky to end up with, it just wasn't in his nature.

This past week Toby passed away. I think it happened during the night, and it didn't look like he suffered, so that's good. He was an old dragon, and towards the end we knew it was coming. He stopped being motivated to eat, and just seemed ready to go.

He's buried under the china berry tree out back, so if you're the next person to rent our duplex, don't dig him up please.

Things on My Mind

So I'm sitting here at work, and honestly I have no idea what I should be doing. I've been ready to go home since 2. My brain just seemed to click off and decide that the work day should be ended, and that it was done thinking. Since then I've managed to remember a couple of things I'm supposed to have done, and even done them all I think. I still have an hour or more of sitting here to do, doomed to spend most of it staring into space.

I finished Round 2 of Sock Madness III within the limit of the first 20 people of my division. I thought that I would be barely squeaking in, I think I was number 16 or 17, but since then the going has been slow and we are still waiting for the elusive number 20 to finish up. This was a difficult pattern, but something strange must have happened, because by all rights this round should have ended a while ago. Honestly I was so slow I shouldn't have made it in, and I wouldn't have if I were in a faster division. I am 90% sure that I will not make it through round 3. I do like these socks, and the stranding means that they mostly fit my foot. This is a good thing since I plan to keep them for myself. The pattern is called Tokena and is based on some funky basket weave pattern. The astute will notice that I am not using the same colors that were shown in the previous post, it didn't work out so well. I swapped the multi-color over to a more solid green, and it shows the stitch work a lot better.

Had an OB appointment last Thursday and Dr Collins said the baby measured 2.75 lbs. When people ask if I'm ready for him to be born I can't help but think that under 3 pounds is a trifle small, and no matter how uncomfortable I might be at that moment he really shouldn't be evicted yet. Everything is still going well, and the doc keeps saying that it's all normal/average/on track. No gestational diabetes, or any other issues, so I'll just keep getting bigger and he'll keep kicking harder, and hopefully we'll continue the smooth sailing.

We're still waiting to close on the house. I'll find out more tomorrow, but we're hopeful that we will be able to close on Monday. On the one hand I'm a bit bummed that it's going to happen after the weekend, because that's one less weekend that we have to do house stuff, but on the other hand this weekend is our wedding anniversary. As long as we know for sure when we are closing tomorrow then we can just celebrate this weekend, and relax without feeling pressured to be working on projects. Although I might have to start doing a little packing, only a little though. I'm so glad that we don't have to be completely moved until May 31st, because I have been one lazy slug lately, and I couldn't stand to have to hurry though this process.

Waiting For Teh Go

Tomorrow morning, sometime between 7 am and 11 am the pattern for Sock Madness III Round 2 will be released into the wild. With any luck it will be closer to 7 since we are meeting some people at 10:30 and I'd love to get started knitting before we get busy for the day. You can take this as a heads up that I probably won't post again until the socks are done. I'm going to be busy at work in such a way that I won't be able to goof off and knit at my desk, much less spare a few minutes for the blog, so I thought I ought to say hi now.

I'm excited by the two colors that I've chosen, and super curious to find out how they are going to mix together. We were told to pick two solids, or one solid color and one semi-solid... I didn't do that so much. At least one of them is solid colored, but the other is just pretty. I can already tell that I'm going to have a hard time falling asleep tonight, because I'm really looking forward to knitting these socks. I hope that it comes together in a pleasing way, or I shall be put out. For your viewing pleasure I present my yarns.
[Left to Right: Shibui Sock in Honey (1395) and Shibui Sock in Stone (51302)]

A Little Madder

We are approaching the end of Sock Madness Round 1. Just like last year Round 1 is looking to end with a bit of a fizzle. The first round cut was limited to the first 40 finishers from each of the 4 divisions. So far no a single division actually has 40 people that have managed to knit the pair of socks. There is only one division that even stands a chance to hit that number by 6pm Eastern tonight. That is the official cut off for completed entries to progress to the next round. The first pattern was unveiled March 19th, and the round ends tonight roughly 14.5 days later.

It's looking as if to get Round 2 down to under 2 weeks they are going to have to limit the number of people moving on to 20. This sounds like a huge cut, from 40 down to 20 but as it stands several of the groups only have 26-27 people who have finished. Of course Round 1 was full of new techniques for most of us, and there were tales of lost socks or major issues that necessitated starting completely over. It's possible that Round 2 will go by quicker if it runs smoother for the participants.

Me, I think I'm going to take advantage of the sale at Hill Country Weaver's tonight. It's the monthly 1st Thursday sale and sock yarns happen to be 20% off. I do have sock yarn in the stash that I can use for socks in general, but I don't really have anything that fits the specs for the next round. The next round is slated to start some time Saturday, and of course I will be busy and unable to print the pattern. Still, I will get it on my iPhone and get cracking to the best of my ability.

Couch Potato or Futon Carrot

As I mentioned yesterday we have a couch to replace. We aren't planning on getting a "real" couch until we're moved into the new house, because we want one that fits that space, and not the space we are only going to stay in for the next two months. However, we also wanted to get something for guests to sleep on in the new house, and we had a fairly large couch shaped hole in our current living room. After only one day without a couch to curl up on together we knew that we had to get something quick.

In stepped the Beddinge from Ikea. The end goal for this sofa bed (aka futon) is to end up in the office upstairs so that the room can double as a guest room. If we ever replace our bed, then it may move to the guest room and the futon can move into the loft space as a couch. So it really seemed like an ideal furniture purchase for the moment. We had been thinking about it for a while, but hadn't planned on purchasing it ahead of time until bulky trash day came about March 30. An opportunity to quickly, easily, and cheaply dispose of a broken sofa could not be missed.

The combination that we chose is the Beddinge Frame with a Murbo mattress, and the green Sandvik cover. While I really like the green (it is brighter in person) and was excited about it, I knew that when I saw the Jorun throw nearby that I needed it to help break up the wall of color. I like it a lot, and I think it will be fun to actually decorate the office with that piece of furniture involved instead of just piling junk in it the way we do now. Maybe I'll hang my frog prints in there... We did not spend the extra $80 bucks to get square cushions to make "arms" for the couch, because I wasn't convinced we need them. If this were to be a full time couch I'd feel differently, but I'd rather save the money for now. We can always go back and purchase them or craft some up later if we decide that we just have to have them.