Cables & Corrugations

I find myself in the unusual position of being 100% completely and totally packed and ready to walk out the door when my dad gets here to pick me up. In half an hour.

So I figured I’d throw up my finished object post on the Cables & Corrugations socks!

By the way, since this is technically WiP Wednesday, I have one active WiP, and it’s the Noro scarf. But it’s a scarf, so it looks pretty much identical to the last time you saw it, just a few inches longer.

Anyhoo, onward!

This was yet another pair of Cat Bordhi socks from New Pathways for Sock Knitters. It’s the Riverbed architecture and is the one I hear people raving about most often.


I slightly messed up the toe on the first sock. I was supposed to rotate it 90 degrees, but I missed that instruction until I was about halfway through the foot. No way in hell was I ripping it back at that point! So I made the same design element on the second sock :)


This was my first stab at a braid cable, and there is at least one mistake in each sock. That I left. After the SNAFU with fixing the back cable on the first sock, I successfully dropped down and properly fixed THREE improper crosses on the second sock.

Then, as I was doing the EZ sewn bind-off on sock #2, I realized I had mis-crossed at the very top of that sock. Screw it. The damn mistake is staying.


Aside from the cable crossing issues, I really enjoyed making these socks. (SJ is right. It's very tough to photograph your own feet!)


The length of time that it took to complete these is very deceiving. I probably lost 10 days to my little stomach bug last month, but they were very easy to do and the second sock practically flew off of my needles. Then I ripped 6 of the 12 repeats on the leg of the first sock and completed most of it during the Monday night Penguins game. Stayed up until it was bound of and … tah-dah!


Pattern: Cables & Corrugations from Cat Bordhi’s New Pathways for Sock Knitters
Yarn: Zen Yarn Garden
Color: Aubergine
Source: ZYG Harmony Semi-Solid Sock Club/February 2008
Needles: Addi Turbo 16” US 1/2.5 mm
Started: 17 April 2008 (sock 2: 18 May)
Finished: 26 May 2008

Here, There and Everywhere

Sorry ye olde bloggity blog went dark for a while. We’ve been busy!

Friday night, we went to PNC Park and watched the cubs score in 7 of an available 9 innings. Ugh.


We had a great view of the post-game fireworks from up there. It was fun!

On Saturday morning, I worked a quiet few hours at Bloomin’ Yarns. It was fun. Then I headed home and we went to PNC for another baseball game.


We sat down lower and were joined by Weirdy Pants and the MWP. We saw the Parrot up close several times. I hope they had fun. It made the day fun for me!

Of course, the damn game was a marathon.


It went 14 innings. Yes, the scoreboard says 11:14 pm. The Pirates did manage to win in those 14 innings, but by the time we were walking out of the park, there were just a few short minutes left in my birthday.

The Hubster talked me into staying at home on Saturday night rather than heading straight up to the Lake, so I left first thing in the morning.

I got to the Lake in time to see Jim Nabors sing “Back Home Again in Indiana” prior to the start of the Indy 500. So that was good.

We had a good sunset on Sunday night


I ducked out of the TV room where we were watching the UCLA softball game to snap a few pictures.

Same drill on Monday, but instead of watching a Bruins win we were watching a Penguins loss


I finished the C&C socks but don’t have the energy to do that post tonight. I’m going to upload the photos to flickr and do a post once I get to Oklahoma City tomorrow. I hope.

If you catch any softball on ESPN or ESPN2 over the next 10 days or so, that’s where I’ll be. I’ll be very neutral and professional on the outside, but on the inside?

GO BRUINS!!!!!

YPF: Cabin Cove Edition

Yes, I know it has been a million years since I did a Yarn Pr0n Friday post. Believe me, I have plenty of pictures all stocked up, I just never seem to be able to get my act together to do a post. Yep, there's a reason that I'm not on Cristi's blog ring. I'm too damn unreliable!

But today? Well, I recently purchased a yarn that I really thought that I’d like and when I got my hot little hands on it, I totally fell in love.

About 10 days ago, I had a really good mail day. When I stuck my head outside to check on the mail, I was greeted with this site:


The big box was the M&Ms exchange that I need to get moving on. The little one? Well that was from Dave at Cabin Cove!

I ordered two skeins of sock yarn from his selection. I do like the other colorway as well, but the one that sent me into a squealing tizzy was this one. Yankees.

I’m a blue kid. That’s no secret

But this? This is the perfect navy and white combo.


To the point where I am still debating with myself about trying to get my sweaty little paws on a second skein so that I can “have my yarn and knit it too.”


It’s an 80/20 merino/nylon blend and I believe Dave when he says it’s his favorite yarn to work with. I can totally see why!!! It spent a good solid week on my desk so I could pet it during a bad day.

Cabin Cove Mercantile
Merino/Nylon Sock Yarn
450 yards, Fingering Weight
80% Merino Wool, 20% Nylon
Yankees Colorway

I think I need another skein. Happy Birthday* to Me?

Have a great holiday weekend, everyone! ☺ amy
(*it's tomorrow if you are curious)

WiP Wednesday Thursday

My job is … interesting these days. Nearly complete lack of communication, which is a serious problem since I work 1,000 miles away from the main office.

So I spent all day yesterday writing and catching up on stuff that I didn't know I had to do, and didn’t have time to take my WiP Wednesday photos before I left for Hurricane Knitters and was too tired to do it when I got home last night.

Today was a good mail day. Well, half a good mail day. I got a box from my in-laws with a “birthday present.” I use the quotations because … well, they did great with a gift cert at Christmas for The Loopy Ewe. For my birthday? A signed autobiography that I’ll never read by some guy I’ve never heard of who used to play for the Cubs.

Whatever.

But I did get a second Priority Mail box today and THAT was good. It was a little advance birthday present from me to me. A new pair of sock blockers!

Now never fear, I’m not going to give up my fabulous Turtle Daddy sock blockers any time soon. But these are the pair that got me seriously thinking about sock blockers late last summer. Someone mentioned them on Ravelry, I clicked over to Etsy and there they were … available! So an early Happy Birthday to Me!

Wanna see what they look like? Well, they’re modeling my WiP:


I got the heel turned on Cables & Corrugations Sock #2 yesterday at Hurricane Knitters. I should be able to get this sock finished relatively quickly, then I “get” to rip out the first sock to fix my f’d up cable. ::sigh::

YES, CRISTI. YOU WERE RIGHT. SHADDUP!

::ahem:: What was I saying? Oh yeah. My new sock blockers. They’re from Fearless Fibers and they’re made of cedar. So they smell fantastic. And they’re about ¾” thick. Very cool!

Here’s another look at my socks-in-progress on my new blockers.

Oh, and when I’m not using them? They’re gonna live in the Sock Yarn Cabinet and use their smelly goodness to tell moths to keep away.

I love the smell of cedar. Yay!

Tuesday Report

First a last little bit of business from my trip.


RT is peering over a ledge, looking straight down from where I spent four full days sitting on a very hard wood bench.


My seat was on the far left in that window that’s closed. Why am I showing you this crap? Because my cell phone slipped off the ledge on Friday and fell the whole way down. BOOM!

Fortunately, all I had to do was replace my SIM card and battery and it was good as new. Small pockmark on the side, but yikes, that was scary!

In other news, here’s a pic or two of my first Cables & Corrugation sock. I’ll save the full photo shoot for when the pair is finished, but here’s the small cable mistake that I chose to ignore


After I made my second mis-cross, this time on the back of the sock, and decided to fix it, I eventually regretted that decision. Of course, it was (to me) a much more noticeable mistake which is why I decided to fix it.

It took three tries to get it fixed. And then? When I had all the stitches in the right place?


Ugh. I have huge gaping holes on the left side of the cable. I know there are multiple Hurricanes who have fixed a cable, so I’m hoping one of them will have a brilliant idea for how to fix this. I’m 99% sure it’s just a matter of moving yarn along the round so that it’s more evened out.

[I know, I know. I should have just sucked it up and ripped back, but I was trying to knit at softball and didn't want to cast on a new plain sock like I should have, so this is what happened. I also realize that I should have evened out the stitches as I re-looped them, but it's too late for that now, isn't it? Live and learn, I guess!]

If you live in the Greater Pittsburgh Area and feel like witnessing this transformation, please feel free to drop by. We’ll be at the Waterworks Barnes & Noble from 7-close on Wednesday night. Adios!

Three Cheers for HOME

I got home yesterday just in time for the Penguins game. YAY on both counts!

My cousin and her family came to the Championship game on Saturday. It was great to see them! No pictures, though. Camnesia and all that.

The trip home was uneventful, and I was back on the work “horse” today. Of course, I was too tired to get as much done as I needed to. Which means I should be asleep now instead of blogging.

I finished my first Cables & Corrugations sock on Saturday night, and got most of the toe done on Sunday. I’m now increasing and am most of the way to the heel. I’ll get pictures on Wednesday before I go to Hurricane Knitters.

Speaking of Hurricane Knitters, I’m going to need their help. I ripped down a mis-crossed cable on the back of the sock and there are serious holes on the “end” side. I should have tightened it up more as I went along ‘cause it’s going to be harder now. Yeesh. (pictures tomorrow, I hope)

I also got my Zen Yarn Garden shipment today. Yay! It’s a pretty green. Not sure when my STR for May will show up but I’ll be quite well stocked for my trip to Oklahoma City next week. And dammit … I’m taking a plan vanilla sock! No more pattern screwups while knitting and watching softball.

I’m going to try to take pictures tomorrow. I hope!

So. Much. Better.

Today was not only bearable, it was pretty enjoyable. Much cooler. Web access too.

I even made it back to the hotel in time to watch the end of the Penguins game. And honestly? I had to miss all of games 2 and 3 and most of game 4, so I’m kind of OK with the fact that they lost tonight because it means that I can watch most if not all of Game 5 after I get home on Sunday.

Still not much knitting time, but I did get the “big work project” finished today, so YAY! And having web access made the day much more enjoyable.

We did have a weather delay today. I know there are only about three people who read this blog who will appreciate the hilarity of these “tarps” but this was during our weather delay


And then here’s the WiP photo I was going to show you yesterday.


This photo hides my one uncrossed cable that I decided I don't care about, and I have 7 of the 11 “back of sock” ridges completed, so this will be easy to finish by the time I get home. Yay!

Here’s hoping that tomorrow is more like today than yesterday.

I’ll try to take more facility pictures tomorrow so RT can show you around. We’re past the halfway point, and that makes me happy. Have a great weekend!

Why Am I Here?

And which circle of hell is it?

Those are the two questions that have been running through my head all day.

This event that I'm attending is ... wow. I'm in Houston, Texas, and the "facility" is lacking:

• Air Conditioning or a fan
• A tarp for the field
• Internet access
• Running water

Yep. Port-A-Potties in 90 degree heat with 95% humidity. Big fun. Can't even splash some water on your face or un-sticky your hands at any point during the day. Awesome.

I tried to knit a little bit, and I got about one round of my sock done, but when I was just sticky and miserable all day? no fun at all.

I'm back at the hotel, showered and ready for bed. I honest to God do not have the first clue why I'm here. it's just flushing a bunch of work days during the busiest time of year. Exactly what I don't need.

Yeesh.

No pictures today. It's just too damn hot to even think about knitting.

Five Hours

That’s how long I was on my work conference call last night.

Five. Hours.

Ya know what you can do in five hours?

• Fly from Pittsburgh to Houston (I have to do that tomorrow)
• Spend an entire evening with the Hurricane Knitters
• Watch an overtime hockey game (I missed all but the first five minutes of the Pens game last night)
• Watch two movies

Lots of other fun stuff I can’t think of right this more.

-or-

Pick three All-America teams via conference call. Blech. Did I mention that the call started at 8 pm? Yeah. 8 pm to 12:45 am. Yuck.

Anyhoo, the Cables & Corrugation sock is no longer kicking my ass. I missed a cable cross, but I decided that I don’t care.

I can’t decide what knitting to take with me on this trip. Obviously, the C&C sock. And the Noro scarf. I’m definitely taking another sock. Probably my March RSC Leafling socks, and I think I have yarn for another “plain vanilla” sock that I’m gonna take with me

I did sign up for the Summer of Socks. As much as I’d like to do a thicker yarn sock now, I’m gonna save those for SoS. ☺

Well, I’m gonna go watch some Fake News and get to bed.

Oh, and the best part about the damn conference call last night? When I finally went to bed at 1 am, I kept waking up all freakin’ night thinking I was back on that call asking for another vote. I slept like crap. Here’s hoping tonight is better.

WiP Wednesday: Boring Edition

I could have taken a picture of the vest, but why? It looks exactly the same as it did last week.


I have barely gotten anything done on my Cables & Corrugations sock. The heel is off by a stitch somehow (I can see where it happened, but there’s no way in hell I’m going to rip down to fix it. Not worth it) so it’s not quite brainless even though I’m in a cable-free zone.

And, since it’s not a particularly brainless project, I decided I really needed something that required absolutely no thinking to complete successfully. So I cast on for a scarf!


Yeah, it’s the Brooklyn Tweed Noro scarf. I’m liking it, and I think I successfully knit it while asleep at the hotel on Saturday night. Oh, and it's currently just shy of 8" long.

I got another chunk of sock heel turned at Hurricane Knitters tonight, but we had the World’s Slowest Service at Chilis and Carol from the M&M quilters called in the middle of knitting time, so I didn’t get much done. But that's OK. I had fun anyway!

I’m in charge of holding down the fort at Bloomin’ Yarns tomorrow (Thursday) night for Knit Night, as well as working all day Saturday and Sunday. Come on by for a visit!

Maryland Recap

Sorry it took me so long to get this done. And if you want to see the final picture live and in person? Hurricane Knitters tomorrow night at the Waterworks Barnes & Noble!

RT and I had a very scattered Friday, but managed to get on the road just about 20 minutes after the rest of our MSWF posse. We actually passed them before we got to the hotel, arriving about five minutes before Michelle and her van-full of fun.

After a yummy dinner and bad night’s sleep at the hotel (typical for me the first night in just about any hotel), we woke up in the morning to get ready to head to the festival.

When we opened the window to let some sunlight in, we saw this. RT was impressed


Just a bummer that it wasn’t the real rig of the Home Depot Toyota!

We drove over to the festival grounds, and we only “stood” in one line the whole day. This one!


Yep. The line to park! But we were early enough that we never really stopped moving, so no big deal.

We walked all around the fairgrounds. Well before we got our bearings, we wound up doing a circuit around the main barn. We got sucked in to the Koigu Mill Ends booth, where we met Katiebell (Ravelry link). I did a lot of grabbing and tossing into my bag and SWEATING! (oh my GOD was it hot in there!). Once I got weighed (yarn! Not me! I’d hate to think what I weighed in grams ::shudder::) I had to move over into a different line. I stood there and thought “XX grams at 25 cents/gram = … WTF! That’s way too much $$ and again, what the HELL am I going to do with hanks of yarn this small?”

So I walked away. I later found out that I inspired Katiebell to do the same thing. Yay, being rational at the festival!

I will admit that I had some serious Camnesia for the bulk of the festival. After leaving the main barn, I walked up between the two rows of barns and witnessed The Lines. One very long line going uphill for The Fold and an even longer one going downhill for festival stuff. I had intended to stand in the T-shirt line, but once I witnessed it, I decided that there was absolutely nothing that I needed badly enough to stand in that line.

So RT visited some Alpacas


And some sheep


We saw a few felted pincushions and remembered that my mom had asked me to keep an eye out for a pincushion for her. So I called her to make sure I was remembering correctly. And I was!

Mom had one question for me: “Have you found that blogger girl you wanted to meet yet?”

Why no, I hadn’t. But less than a minute later, I walked into the next barn in line and there she was. Turtlegirl was buying a wheel and I was there! I felt a little goofy standing there just watching the whole scene and leaching onto her posse. I finally caught a break in the drama and introduced myself to TheOtherAmanda (who has a kick-ass blog name, IMHO ... great minds think alike!) and did a dumb thing … I said “Hi, I’m Amy.” And when I got a blank stare, I added, “uh … DPUTiger?”

At which point I got a rousing round of Oh wow! Hi!

Very flattering. :)

Anyhoo, after picking up Al Swearingen (Turtlegirl’s new wheel … an Ashford Kiwi ... I don't get the name, but I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually!), that group headed to the car with their ill booten gotty (sorry … MASH reference) and I was on my own once again.

I got myself really seriously lost within the Main Barn trying to find Yvonne at The Mannings. It’s just one of the biggest booths at the whole festival, and I couldn’t find it FPS!

After that ill-fated loop, I went to the car to empty my backpack, grab a snack and some water and take a little break. I went back in for Round Two and did another leisurely tour of all the buildings and got a few more items.

By about 4:30 pm, RT and I were pretty tuckered out and checked in with Michelle and met up with her at Kiparoo, where we sat outside. RT kept his eye out for exciting people walking around


He was looking out of my backpack like that all day ... I figured he's the star of this blog, so he'd make me recognizeable if any of my vast number of readers < /sarcasm > were looking for yours truly.

We ate ribbon fries and a truly awesome pit lamb sandwich, then decided to go check out the t-shirt line, which wasn’t bad. We left the fairgrounds at about 6 pm, tired and happy. Here was our haul


• Two small pincushions. I can’t remember where I got them
• One large pincushion just like the other ones I own. It’s for my mom.
• T-shirt and pin (longest line of the day, but only took about 15 minutes when I went through)
• A pig coffee mug that I’ll use for pencils and a pottery penguin for my collection
• A Flat Feet that I found at Carolina Homespun
• Two lucets, one found at the Jaeger booth and a second one at the booth with the Medieval-dressed people
• Four skeins of Socks that Rock from The Fold. Again, no line. They were quite picked over, but I got one lightweight (Knitters w/o Borders colorway), one midweight (Thraven), one heavyweight (Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds) and one silkie (Haida). Although there wasn’t much left, they had most of the Raven Series there, so I was able to see all the colorways in person. Makes a big difference!
• One skein of sock yarn from Ellen’s 1/2 Pint Farm. It’s purpley and green and shiny merino/tencel and it jumped out and bit me. I found it before I decided to check out the STR, but that's irrelevant. I had to bring it home!
• That sheep was my one impulse purchase. But he's so damn cute, I don't care. He came from a tent just inside the entrance, across from the information tent. I can't remember the name. Sorry!

So that’s about it. Hope you enjoyed your mini-tour of my trip to Maryland!

Busy Busy!

Today was a whirlwind of work stuff ... two conference calls and all the usual Monday stuff.

Garage called about my car. He gave me the technical mumbo-jumbo, but the bottom line is that an air intake hose on my car got shredded. Replacement part will hopefully be in Wednesday. Meanwhile, I have kidnapped my mother's car so I have wheels. This is not a big deal since she is currently in Madrid. Yes, I'm off the hook for Mother's Day because my mother is in Spain.

Hubster and I had dinner with a very good friend who lives in Lexington, and his freshly-minted fiancee who lives here! (he proposed on Friday night!). Had no time to take pictures of the MDSW stuff before I left for dinner and it was quite dark when I got home 10-ish.

Tomorrow should be less nuts. I'll try very hard to take pics and post my festival recap. Sorry for the delay!

Home In One Piece

Yep. I survived Maryland Sheep & Wool.

It was fun and I’ll write about it when my head stops feeling like it’s going to explode.

I was sneezy and drippy yesterday, but when I got home tonight I cut the grass. I think that’s what modified the situation from “yeah, it’s seasonal allergy time” to “My Head Is Full Of Snot And My Eyes Are Watering And I Think My Head Might Explode.”

Much fun.

So as I left the fairgrounds yesterday, I saw this (yes, I took it while I was on I-70. It’s shockingly easy to just take a half-dozen blind photos … eyes on road, not camera … and just pick the best one)


Yep. My Check Engine light turned on. I checked a few reliable sources (thanks, Yvonne!) and was told that as long as it didn’t start blinking, I should just go home. What the heck else was I going to do when it turned itself on at 6:15 on a Saturday night?

For the record, it turned on between driving off of the Fairgrounds and getting on I-70 to return to the hotel on Saturday. Car is currently at the mechanic and will be plugged into a computer tomorrow morning.

The one thing I’ll share now from my festival haul is this, a photo taken specifically and exclusively for Dave, although this photo is far from his high standards.


Yep. They're the only thing(s) I’ve touched since I got home. Dove straight for the scrap yarn stash while watching the Pens game.

And on that note, I’m off to go pass out and hope to hell that I can breathe tomorrow morning. Wish me luck!

WiP Wednesday: Snails Edition

Why snails? Because these projects have been moving slower than snails.

Yeah, the sick had something to do with that, but still.


First, the side-to-side vest. I seamed the shoulders just hours before The Sick and haven’t touched it since. It needs to have the shoulders picked up and knit, as well as the neckband. And yeah, it’s going to need a good blocking when it’s done.

I didn't take time to straighten it out right for it's photo shoot. I got distracted by the cute puppy next door and therefore was running late to get out of the house and on the road.

Oh, and I found good buttons at Bloomin’ Just forgot to photograph them.

In other news …


Here is my Cables & Corrugation sock. It’s still smarter than me. Damnit. I’m faking the slipped stitches on the heel. I can’t figure out how they got “off” but I’m not going to worry about it. It’s not worth it.

Oh, and I was supposed to rotate the toe 90 degrees, but I didn't read that part of the instructions. Oops.

I attended the Fifth Wednesday festivities tonight because my softball dinner got cancelled. No worries. I’ll see everyone tomorrow at the game.

So that’s about it from here. I cant’ believe how crazy busy I’ve gotten all of a sudden. I’ll be running around with the softball groups all day tomorrow, then BAM it’s Friday and I need to get my act together for MDS&W. Can’t believe it’s almost here!