Valentine Socks Update II

MVOS' socks are done, wrapped and going out tomorrow!  = 200/400

Can't show them but I can say they are knit from a blend of merino, silk, mink and cashmere yarns.

OK!

Sock on the left is at ~78/100.       4 of 6 inches on the cuff remain.

Sock on the right is at  ~89/100.    2 of 6 inches on the cuff remain.

Total percentage is now

~ 92

ta da

14th - today = 6 days to go.  This is so doable.

         

Clutter or not

Is it too much winter?  Too much staying inside so I see the mess?  Or the fact that the clutter has gotten to critical mass?  Whatever it may be I sure am seeing piles and trying to do something about it.  Everyday I either throw something out or  move stuff around to be more compact.  At any rate, I am not seeing much improvement yet but hope by the end of March there will be actual space under tables and even on tables.

Yesterday I was reading Franklin Habit's blog and he said:
   "Speaking of ugly truths, I reached a point in my workroom where the options were either to clean the place out or to brick up the doorway and pretend it was never there. City real estate prices being what they are, I settled upon the former.
   ... I also slotted upwards of 100 million loose knitting patterns into binders.
   For somebody who uses patterns as little as I do, I've acquired more than my fair share of them..."


Wow can I relate.   The other day, before reading that blog,  I opened the buffet table in the kitchen, piled all the loose patterns onto it, sorted them, put the ones not in sleeves into sleeves (96 new sleeves to be exact) and then into some old binders Jim gave me.  However I still don't have a real place to put them

                        so they are piled on the chair in the Yarn Room.  Sigh... that chair holds a lot. 

                                                                       The floor too.

I have made a date with Joanne to help me sort the yarn room next week.  I am actually scared of what we will uncover but hope she will help with tossing twelve zillion small bits of yarn into the trash and who knows what all else.  That room holds a lot of art supplies too.  When it had only one or two uses it was fine but now that it holds knitting, swatches, pattern books, hand spun and commercially spun yarn, my laptop and its accessories, UFO's, art supplies, crafting supplies like lots of beads etc, it's really overloaded.
And what to do with all those old magazines?  I know they are worth something but......

I could board it all up and might only miss a few things (this week) but we don't have another room for me to fill so this one has to be it.

Valentine Socks Update

MVOS' second sock is now at 84.5%,
bringing the grand total to 81.6%.  And I must say that the first completed sock looks really pretty.

knit knit knit purl

I'll be taking one of Jim's to the Ithaca anti fracking info meeting this afternoon. Should get at least an inch done.  NOT ONE WELL NOT ONE WELL NOT ONE WELL in NYS.

A Little Valentine's Math

After my holiday knitting, I did not get to take a knitting break.. sigh.  I try to give myveryownsister a pair of socks for Valentine's and her birthday as she, along with Jim, are my most enthusiastic and appreciative recipients.

Often, Jim gets a pair for Christmas but this year he got a hand spun, hand knit (on US5's) vest. (now where is the pic I took of that vest?). He does love the vest but still hankered for a new pair of socks.  Being a sucker for someone who so enjoys my knitting, I promised that the pair I had started last summer would be done for Valentine's Day.  I do tend to compartmentalize my projects which is how I often get into a knitting frenzy trying to make deadlines.

So I have been dividing my time between mvos' socks and Jim's.  Of course just doing socks becomes boring in a very short amount of time so I have amused myself with a Mystery KAL

and thinking about a new bottom up scarf/shawlette idea.  OK so a few times I stopped knitting to make a swatch or three, but really, they took up no time and kept me interested, even though Jim did mention the digression with a bit of jealousy in his voice.

So here we are on February 1. The thought for this morning was that I should take stock and see how close these objects are to finishing.  My sister's socks have to be mailed so I have concentrated on them for the past week.  One is actually now completed and the other is ready for the heel to be turned.  Both of Jim's are on the cuffs.  Sounds good to me but just to make sure I thought I'd formalize that into actual percentages and then into a plan for the next 2 weeks.

So if I count each sock as 100%, I then need to get to 400% to finish.

One mvos sock completed = 100%
The other mvos sock is ready for the heel to be turned so is at ~43%
(That's because I count the toe as ~10%, the instep with gussets as ~33.%, the heel as 25% and the cuff as ~33%).

One of Jim's socks is about 2 inches into the cuff so ~75%.
The other is just above the heel so ~66%.

That all adds up to about 285% out of 400% or about 71.25% of the total.
If I get mvos' heel turned today I will then be at 77% of goal.

I think hers can be done by Monday or Tuesday which gives the package plenty of time to get to Rhode Island and then leaves me a week to get Jim's done.  His are way slower as there are 80 stitches on US0 needles while mvos' are done with US1.5 and 60 sts.  Her yarn is a bit thicker too.

WOW this is so doable!!!!  Nothing like a bit of math to see reality.  My reward will be to actually get back to some socks I started for myself almost a year ago and to start that new shawlette.

NO tears Long Tail Cast-on

There must be at least 2 dozen cast-ons out there.  I only know of maybe 5-10 but that's been enough for me:  long tail, stretchy long tail, I cord, backwards loop, cable, provisional, estonian, mobius, etc.  Many of them are shown on this blog.

My standing favorite is long tail because I like the edge it produces for most garments.

This video iknitwithcatfur by does a great job of slowly showing the process.

Since this method uses the intended ball of yarn, one has to guess at the best length for the tail part, often resulting in a quick frogging of the cast-on stitches even before starting the project due to running out of tail.  That can be so frustrating. Some folks overcompensate by leaving a really long end to cut off before beginning and it can feel wasteful.

A few weeks ago, I needed to cast on 350+ stitches.  I am pretty good at estimating to about 200 stitches on long tail but really didn't want to have to start again after I got to 305 or 340 or even 345.  Actually that's the reason I don't do or design many bottom up shawls.  Most of them start with over 300 stitches and that amount of casting on can seem not only endless but rather discouraging if it all has to be started again and again.  

So there I was trying to decide on a length for the tail when I noticed I had 2 balls of the needed yarn.

It was an epiphany for me.  I know some of you already know this, but self discovery is so cool.

I took one end from each, knotted them together, put one ball on the floor, one ball on the table, used the knot for the center and knew I had way more yarn than needed but could cast on happily until done, then cut off the second ball to use later.

Then I got to thinking about how to use only one ball and realized one could take one strand from the center and one from the outside and do exactly the same thing.  Of course this will only work with a center pull ball, but mostly that's what I use.  I love figuring stuff out and sharing it with you.

For those of you participating in our La Mer Mystery KAL, you will need to put your skeins into center pull balls.  Decide which is the MC and which is the CC.  I suggest if you have Woody and Panda to use the Panda as the MC.  If you have Panda and Donegal, then use the Donegal as the MC.

You will also want to learn a stretchy long tail cast-on for this project.  This is the German Twisted.  There are others too but whichever one you use, make sure it is stretchy.  Practice this. When you are comfortable, cast-on 351 stitches and have patience until Sunday when you will receive Clue #1.

Reely Reely Big Present

On the first night of Chanukah my son said to me:
Happy Chanukah and Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas.

He also told me that a package was coming that covered all three.

He refused to give me any hints even though I asked some 'innocent' sounding questions.  I joked that I might get it in February as he isn't very good about actually getting the package to the PO.  But he said that DIL Liz' sister, Irene, was in charge of mailing so I knew it would get here soon.

Matt then texted wanting to know if he needed to have me sign a signature card with the package.  Hmmmnnnn what would need a signature?

Last Thursday, on my birthday, a package from Matty & Liz from San Ramon (must be Irene's sense of humor as DS and DIL live in Livermore and I've never heard DS called Matty) arrived!!!!  I was too excited.  You see I had been doing a lot of guessing and had myself worked up to a new iPod or maybe an iPhone, what with that signature question.  But the package was rather light.  Hmmmnnnn

I opened it up and to my surprise there was a gift bag of Celestial Seasonings Herbal Teas including chapstick and mints.

Matt must have been misleading me with the signature question.

Then Jim said to look into the bottom of the tin as everything seemed to be on top.  That wasn't as easy as it looks as it's all hot glued together. Nope, nada on the bottom but that squiggly paper filling.   So now I'd have enough for a whole summer's worth of iced tea pitchers.

However--------

On Friday a largish package arrived.  And this one had weight to it.

I called my sister (put her on speaker phone) and got Jim, and together we opened the box.

OMG OMG OMG

This is an iPad 4 Retina.  I am blown away (still).

I've been playing with it exclusive to almost anything else for days now.

Compelling, additive, fun and incredible.  I've downloaded apps for drawing and writing and games and reading. This is the first thing I did with an app called Paper.

and sent it to Matt & Liz.

I also downloaded iBooks and eRead as I figure that if I am carrying this 1.6#  iPad around I don't want to also haul books.  My sister is gifting me with a cover/case and there are about a zillion to choose from but only a few reelly reelly reely nice ones that are book-like.

I have narrowed it down to between a Contega or a Portenzo.

Now to get back to that Holiday Knitting.  Well --- in between taps on the pretty iPad.

How I saved $640

The week before Thanksgiving I hit a deer coming home from Knit Knite.  It was about 9:20 so very dark but dry.  All of a sudden there was a large deer blocking my lane.  I braked, heard a loud crunch and saw the deer roll and run up the bank on my right side.  I stopped and fortunately there was no one behind me or coming the other way.  My car seemed OK and anyway it was a dead zone for cell service so I drove home in a hyper awake state and shaking.

When I got here I called my insurance company who were very calm and helpful.  They made out a report and told me someone would be calling in a day or two.  As it was just after Hurricane Sandy I wasn't expecting a call too soon.   They also said to call the police.  I did and a nice State Trooper arrived about a half hour later from the barracks on the other side of the county.  He made out an official accident report and was glad I was OK.

In the morning I could see that my front grille was completely gone and there were deer hair in the cracked bumper but I couldn't see much else.  The inspector showed me other parts that needed replacing.  Jim made me a temporary grille from some plastic lattice as I as afraid the radiator would get hit with something while I was driving.  Very cute.  I almost laced it with artificial vines.

Why am I telling you all this?  Because while my Pilot was in being fixed (front grille, front bumper, right fender, radiator)  I was given a basic Civic as a loaner.  I loved zipping around town in it.  It made me realize how big and wide my pilot is and remember how it fills out most parking spots so that I have dings from other car doors.  My last Pilot was a bit smaller and I didn't have these problems but this one is more awkward for me.  When I thought about it I really only need the Pilot for 6-8 times a year when we do vendings and such.

Then the next week it told me I needed a B1 service.  That means tire rotation, fluids, oil, etc.  It also needed alignment and alas is very close to needing new tires.  The estimate was $770 for 4 and I need 4 as it is AWD.  2 tires are at 3mm and 2 at 2mm.  Not good enough to get me through the winter and to my lease ending late April.

I called around town and got estimates at $712, $690, $670 and finally some UniRoyals that were merely $640.  It's Holiday season.  Do I really want to spend my budget plus on tires?? Noooooo but then again I also don't want to wind up in a ditch in January.   What to do????

I remembered that last time I turned in my car a month or two before the lease was up they rolled the unpaid months into the new lease.  I also called Honda to find out about changing my current lease into a purchase.  They said that was very possible but I needed to talk to someone at a dealership to get the details.
Oh and while the Pilot was being serviced earlier this week I walked into the showroom just to look at 2013 Pilots and compare a CRV with them.  When I first started driving Hondas I wanted to shop local but the guy in the showroom at that time was so snotty I wound up going to Rochester and getting a great deal.  I have leased 3 cars from Holtz Honda up there.

The other day the guys I met were so friendly and Jeff, who showed me the 2013's, said that they would make me a great deal. He was sure of it.  So I made an appointment for this afternoon to talk to the sales manager. Between Jeff and Jerome I knew they wanted a sale and were going to offer me whatever it took.

Well the CRV is 50 cu ft smaller than the Pilot BUT with a roof box it would then be only 30 cu ft smaller.  Plus I can zip around town and have a bit of fun AND get 10 more mpg than the Pilot. I took a test drive in a blue CRV that matched all my criteria even though I thought I wanted a teal or white one.  By the time I was done test driving I liked the blue CRV best as it has purple undertones.  :^)  And I like those hub caps too.

Jerome says they are buying my Pilot outright from Honda and paying for the new tires (at retail) and the all remaining lease payments.  In the past those have been rolled into the new lease.  Hmmmmnnnn and what else?   

Then Jerome told me he would also be paying for the installation of the roof rails and trailer hitch plus my new payments will be $30 less than my current ones.  Considering inflation I think I am getting a very good deal.  It seems that used Pilots are in short supply and used cars are very much in need since Sandy.  Add the CRV to the December total for these guys and they are happy and I am happy too.

So the one I test drove now has a SOLD sign on it.

I'll be picking her up on Dec 31.