Christmas at Casa Batty

After much working and studying, we finally have some time off.  Time to knit, time to snuggle in front of the fireplace, and time to watch the cats go nuts in the tree.

I participated in a Christmas swap with some people on ravelry, and I received this lovely hand-dyed yarn.  It had little surprises wrapped up in it, and I don't know if it's the packages or the pattern that kept me knitting.  Either way, it was hard to stop.  This is Stephen West's Pogona, knit on US #6 needles.  It's blocking, action shots to follow.

We got a white Christmas!  This is what I saw this mroning. Beautiful, isn't it?  We took a walk in the snow, stopped for coffee, then had waffles and little turkey sausages for breakfast.

When we unwrapped our gifts, I found these hand-made bat ornaments.  My Mother-in-Law made them for me, and I immediately hung them up.  Yay, bats!

The tree is fake, but if you think that keeps the cats from chomping... well, you probably don't have cats, or you don't have cats with an oral fixation bad enough to make Freud exclaim, "Now zis is a prime example of failure to resolve conflict during ze oral stage of development!  Zese cats vill never be right because zey cannot do ze talk terapy."  And he would be right.

Now that my class is over, I have more time to knit.  The knitting mojo is back!  I'll try to post more regularly and share some of the FOs that have been piling up unphotographed.  In the meantime, Merry Christmas to all who celebrate.  I'm going to enjoy some quality flopping time, and then, the pie crust gets rolled out.  I may have overworked it.  We'll see.

All Moved In

It has been several months, and much has happened.  We have sold a condo, moved into rental housing for the transition, moved out of rental housing, and into our new place.  What a whirlwind the past few months have been!
I have a new computer.  My old blogroll is gone, I'll have to reassemble it little by little.  It will take time.  But I'm knitting again, spinning again, finally relaxed enough for some yarny pursuits.
And I have some catching up to do!

I knit some socks for my Dad.  Started last year, finished this year.  String Theory Caper Sock, one of my favorite sock yarns.  So squooshy, and the stitch definition is dreamy.

The pattern is Hex, which I got through the Cookie A sock club.  I forget if it was last year's or this year's, but I really enjoyed it.

These were knit in Merlin the Cat sock yarn in the Zombie colorway.  Happy zombies if ever I've seen them.  These socks make me happy.

Next up: some non-sock projects.  There is also some secret knitting going on, what with the holidays approaching.  But I can't share those quite yet, sorry.

This Blog is Not Dead

No, it isn't, even though I haven't posted in a month.  We are putting our condo on the market and hoping to move soon.  Getting ready for an open house is so much work, particularly when you have to pack most of your belongings to make the space look hip and minimalist.
And don't even mention the yarn.  Space bags, yarn, hours of sorting through stash and preparing it to go into storage.  That's right, my stash is in storage.  Protected from moths, I hope, and ready to come back out once we have sold this place and found a new one.
I have one bin of yarn, some fiber and my spinning wheel.  Let's see if I can knit/spin that down before we move.

Whew.

I am baaaaack!
It's been a long couple of weeks, work-wise, but I have made it through preparation for business travel, a trip that involved being fed information via the garden hose method while sick and trying to get a prescription for antibiotics to Ohio (not easy when your doctor is in MA!). But now, I'm home, caught up on work, and I have time to knit.

I still haven't taken pictures of the sweater that's been finished for months, it's been unseasonably warm and I haven't wanted to put it on. I have some finished socks, however.

This is the closest to what the color looks like in person. Except it's even brighter. In your face green!


This is what they look like on the foot.


And they've got a fancy heel too.


Details:
Pattern: Blathnat
Yarn: Koigu sock yarn
Needles: US #0
Comments: The color of the yarn is gorgeous, but there were quite a few inconsistencies in the spinning. Some spots looked really frayed, some looked underspun, and some were waaaay too thick. It worked out fine, but there were issues.

Oh, the cats say I need to post cat pictures. Well, here you go, cat picture.


Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Cosby Socks

It's busy season at work, but I had to stop by and share them, my finished Cosby socks. Thanks so much for noticing the resemblance! Mr. Batty and I couldn't quite place where we'd seen the pattern before, we figured it was retro and strangely familiar, but why? And then, you told me! Knitters know everything.


Pattern: Stripe Tease
Yarn: Cheap German sock yarn from Lidl
Needles: US #0
Size: 60 stitches total
Comments: Fun pattern, couldn't stop knitting it. I highly recommend the pattern. As for the yarn... there's a reason it was cheap.

SIP Sunday

It's Sunday, the perfect day for socks and sweaters in progress. I have been suffering from startitis, so I will restrict myself to projects I've worked on this weekend. Remember the ugly sock? It... hasn't turned out as swan-like as I would have liked. It looks more unusual than attractive. I almost didn't knit a second sock. But that would be cruel. Being an ugly sock is bad enough. Being an ugly sock that's all alone in the world would be horrible.


Not yet recognizable as much of anything is the neck of Rosamund's Cardigan. I said I'd be knitting sweaters in 2012. See? I am.


One of my Blathnat socks now has a heel. I'm loving the bright green. It's slightly variegated, just the tiniest bit. Very pretty yarn. Very pretty pattern.


There are several other socks in progress, at least one other sweater, and I've been eyeing some yarn/pattern combos for caston potential. Startitis... I've got it bad.

Spooky Things

It's the end of the month and I was going to do a big knitting progress post, but I'm currently serving as a cat recliner. This is a very important job, and one I take very seriously.

Instead of going upstairs to take pictures of my knitting, I'll share this little cross-stitch FO. Bats! And a little pillow you slip them into -- no finishing! Did I mention it has bats on it?


Now for the reason of the lack of knitting content. This is a closeup of the situation on my lap.


Yeah. I need to take pictures of my knitting soon. Once the cat leaves. If she leaves. This one has staying power.

The Good, The Bad, and The...

Have you ever bought cheap yarn that looked OK in the skein? Sure you have! I went to Jawoll in Germany, a discount store with all sorts of bobs and ends, from groceries to... well, yarn. And I saw this. Blues, greens, purples, burgundies... looks OK, right? It was cheap. It was self-striping. How bad could it be?


There are questions to which we do not really want to find out the answer. I cast on a pair of Stripe Tease for the SKA unusual construction challenge. I knit. I frogged. Tip: follow the pattern exactly as written, don't try to think. If you try to think for yourself, you'll mess up. Take my word for it, I did.
Anyhow... yes, I'm procrastinating showing you the next picture. Because it's downright pathetic, my poor, poor ugly sock. I hope it looks better when it's finished, because right now... well, see for yourselves.


The combination of unusual construction and unfortunate yarn choice is making the poor sock look like it's been massacred. So let's move on to happier things, like Blathnat.
Koigu KPM in a happy green, pretty lace, it's going well. I can still knit pretty socks! I sure need that reminder.


And yet again, I cast on for the Geodesic Cardigan. Let's hope it works this time around. The stockinette is curling in spite of the garter stitch edges. Maybe a good blocking will help.


I am off to work on my poor misshapen socks. Hope springs eternal. Maybe my ugly ducklings will turn into a beautiful swan...

Startitis

I have heard much about startitis, the almost pathological urge to cast on new projects, but until the last couple of days, I had never experienced it for myself. Now, I have a bad case of it.
Usually, swatching is a barrier to entry when it comes to sweater knitting. I don't want to do it. The start of a new project is my least favorite part of knitting, if you'll believe it. So you can imagine my surprise when I started swatching. Big swatches, too, not just a scanty inch to figure out if my gauge is anywhere in the ballpark. No, 4+ inches. For multiple projects. In fact, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to swatch for another project before work now.

Socks and... Not Socks!

This is going to be an interesting year in knitting. I have once again signed up for Cookie A's sock club, the rationale being that having some new yarn show up every two months will keep me from buying more at the yarn store. You know how it is. Stash yarn is nice, but every once in a while, you need something new and exciting to knit with.

These were made from stash yarn. See, I am knitting down stash. My feet are small and my ankles are skinny, so I have almost half a skein of the Meilenweit sock yarn left -- I see leftover socks in my future. But these are a simple 2x2 rib, 60 stitches, US 0 needles. Everyday socks that don't need to be washed too carefully because they're superwash.


You may or may not know that I signed up for 11 sweaters in 2011 and finished exactly 0. So I did the only logical thing: signed up to do 12 in 2012. Makes sense, right? Only this time, I want to at least get close. This is a (somewhat blurry) progress pic of my first sweater. It's done except for the sleeves.


That doesn't mean I'm not knitting socks, though. I have a good 5 or 6 sock projects in various states of completion. These are Hex socks, part of the October patterns from Cookie's club. The yarn is String Theory Caper. Love the colors, the stitch definition, the floofy softness. Beautiful yarn.


I have a business trip coming up and expect to have quite a bit of knitting time, so stay tuned for more knitting. Maybe by then blogger will have fixed whatever issue it is that's keeping me from leaving comments on people's blogs. I know I'm not the only one who's knitting away furiously.

Here We Are

2012. A couple of days in, right after the resolutions. Time to check in and see how it's g oing!

So far, so good. I'm knitting on... 5 pairs of socks? Maybe 6? I have a sock WIP for every occasion. The body of my current sweater project is almost done, and I have two shawls that need finishing -- as in, substantial knitting, not just washing and blocking.
The stash is shrinking. Trouble is, most of these don't come from my bedroom stash, which is supposed to shrink. They're coming from main stash.

It's a dilemma: knit what I want to knit even if it comes from main stash? Or stick with knitting from the bedroom stash even if it's not giving me that "want to knit this right now" feeling? Not sure.