New Zune, Socks, and Jello!

So I'm a bit of a gadget nerd. I love neat electronic gadgets. I wish I had more money to spend on little electronic gadgets. I had an mp3 player that was a few years old (I wouldn't be caught dead with an iPod, but that's just me) - and it died on me the other day. (It was an iRiver - a model they haven't made anymore for some time now - it lasted me a good two/three years - it lived a good life.) So I looked at a new mp3 player. I fell in love with the Zune. I got myself a nice 80GB Zune with a pretty color screen. OMG the stuff this mp3 player does! I never knew what I was missing while I had the piddly 20GB iRiver that only played music and showed still pictures. This thing plays videos, video and audio podcasts, and stores the album pictures with the audio files so you see the album cover while the song is playing. It's a thing of wonder! The Squircle pad is touch responsive - it's a breeze to scroll through my 20+ gig worth of mp3 files. And the picture quality! We got the home a/v kit so we could watch videos on our tv from it - and promptly downloaded the whole season 4 of Battlestar Gallactica to watch (since we're cable deprived). Zune to tv video is not too bad a quality either - a little fuzzy in spots, but not bad at all. Anyway - I'm really happy with my new Zune! I'm in gadget heaven. :-)


I'm in the process of writing up 3 new sock patterns.

My Pavo socks are coming along nicely - I'm done with Sock#1 and working on sock#2 - hopefully I'll have the pattern tweaked and ready to publish in a week or two. I started these the beginning of June for the SKA Sockdown (June's challenge was to design your own socks). I'm really happy with how these are turning out.

I'm writing up the pattern for William's Socks that I did a while back, too. I'm hoping to have that pattern done in a week or two as well.

And, I'm knitting another pair for SKA June Sockdown, too. I haven't come up with a name for these yet. They have a leaf lace motif in the center instep and mini-cables on each side. The yarn is obscuring the pattern a little - I may knit a second pair in a solid color yarn before I finish the pattern up, I'm not sure.

I felt patriotic and made Red, White and Blue Jigglers for the boys for the 4th. They turned out well:

Here's how you make them:

Prepare a red flavor of Jello as per the Jiggler instructions. Pour into pan and let set for about an hour. Then prepare lemon flavored (or unflavored) jello as per jiggler instructions - and then mix in a half a tub of cool-whip to that jello. Pour on top of the red jello, and let it set for another hour. Mix a blue flavor of Jello as per jiggler instructions, and pour on top of the white layer, then let set in the fridge until firm. Then cut into cubes and enjoy!

Anyways, I'll drop in again soon! (Hopefully with a couple of patterns done!!)

'Tackling' Circular Needles

I thought I'd share my circular needle storage/organization solution with you all. I don't remember exactly where I got the idea (on the net somewhere!), but it seemed like a unique solution - and I love, love, love it!

Here's my needlecase:

Do you know what it is IRL? A soft-sided Tackle-bag. That's right, for worms! (Well, the plastic variety, anyway). Guess how much it cost. Go ahead, guess..... $5. At Wal-Mart. Came with 10 zipper pouches. I bought 10 more pouches at Outdoor World for $2, plus 10 smaller pouches (they fit as well) for another $2.

It has a zipper pocket in the front that holds my end caps, tightening screws, stitch markers, etc. Cramming the 20 extra pouches in was a little tricky, but now I have plenty of pouches for all of my circular needle components. (I splurged and got a ton of the Harmony interchangeable ones, btw!)

Anyway, I think it's a nifty (and cheap!) way to conveniently store the circular needles. It even has a handle and it zips completely closed.

On another knitting note, I wanted something to measure my new (size unmarked!) Harmony needles, so I wouldn't be lost as to what size they were. Of course, I could just get a little needle size thingamabob, but I don't like those - some of them don't have the half-sizes. The Engineer in me wanted a tool. A Caliper. I could have just spent 5 or 10 bucks on a plain old brass caliper. But no, I wanted the cool dial caliper. $30. To measure my knitting needles. Overkill? At least I'll know to the hundredth of a millimeter the size of my needles. Need to know your needle size? Come to me. The Chemical Engineer will measure for you. ;-P

Happy Birthday to Me!

Tuesday was my birthday - I won't say how old I am - other than to say that I'm now one year closer to the big 4-0. :-( I certainly don't feel like I'm in my (late!) 30's! But, man, I'm really happy with my birthday present - finally a Democratic Nominee!!!!!! Yipee!!! I'm so fired up and ready to go, ya'll!

Hubby got me a lovely tea brewer and some loose leaf tea. I had never heard of Teavana - they originated in Atlanta, so you'd think I would have heard of them. The brewer is the coolest thing - you put your loose leaf tea in and pour you hot/boiling water in and let it steep. Then for the cool part - you place it on top of your mug, and the tea filters out down into your mug - hard to explain, but the coolest thing I've seen in a while. Did I mention that I think it's really cool? Here's a linky to the brewer so you can see for yourself. :-)

So, let's see, it's been I while since I blogged - I've started and finished a Hemlock Ring Blanket - here it is blocking:

I used Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in the Lake Ice Heather color. I ended up using 7 skeins plus a little bit from an 8th skein. The finishing row took about 4 hours to do - and I ended up with over 500 stitches on the needles! Once it was blocked it was about 48 inches wide.

I am ever amazed with lace blocking. You start with an ugly clump of knitted material that looks like this:

And then you end up with a beautiful lace blanket:

And I started a pair of Pirate Socks (pattern is Jack Sparrow's Favorite Socks):

I'm using Chameleon Colorworks Bambino in the Midnight colorway, and Knit Picks Gloss for the heels, toes and fair isle bit. I am loving the Bambino (wool/bamboo blend) - it has a lovely sheen to it and feels so silky - goes well with the gloss yarn, since that's a wool/silk blend.

And here's some spinning I've done - a fingering weight yarn with a long color change (I was actually going for laceweight to do a Swallowtail Shawl with it, but it ended up a little too thick, at 330 yards):

It's Gale's Art BBFL Roving in Ocean Blues colorway.

I'm in the process of spinning up another batch much more thinly - Gale's Art BBFL Roving in "Stormy Seas" colorway:

This batch is going well - I think it'll end up a nice lace weight once I ply it.

Well, I'll stop there for now! Ta-Ta!

(Edited to add: Update on my FIL - they've determined the stage of cancer - it's Stage 3a. He's starting Chemo within the week. His doctor is very optimistic, and says that it's curable. Please continue to keep him in you thoughts!)

Swing Set! and New Shoes!

We got the DS's a new swing set a couple of weekends ago. Took us a good two weeks to get it put together (OMG - totally pay the money to have someone else put one of these together for you - I don't care how much they charge - trust me on this one!)


They absolutely love it! Here's some progress pics and the finished product (minus some yard tweaking, that is):







I finished my socks last week:

And snagged a new pair of shoes earlier in the week to show off my hand-knitted socks:

These are the Journey's exclusive clear Converse sneakers. I've been wanting a pair for almost 6 months now - but they are impossible to get your hands on! I just happened to hit the mall on the very day they got a new shipment, can you believe it?! (It actually looks like they have some in stock online now, too, so snag them while you can!) I'm hoping they don't rub too badly on the heel area, they feel a little snug there - I'm thinking I'll wear cheap-o socks to break the sneakers in before I risk my precious hand-knits.

My Mother's Day gift (a little early):

A Kodak EasyShare Z1285. I love it! It's small enough to carry around in my purse, and takes great photos! Plus HD video and photos too. I was wanting a carry-around-everywhere camera that took good photos and videos to replace my current way-outdated-slow-as-heck-crappy-camera that I did have (an old model Olympus D-560). This new one is fast as lightning and has 12mp. I'm happy. :-)

Some of you are already aware of this - my FIL was diagnosed with stomach cancer a few weeks ago. Thank you for keeping him in your thoughts and prayers. According to the CT scan and other tests that were done, it looks like it was caught early and hasn't spread to his other organs. He had an appointment with an oncologist earlier in the week, and they are doing more diagnostic tests this week and early next week. By Friday of next week we should have a better idea of what exactly we're up against, and know what the game plan is for beating it into remission. Please continue to keep him and our family in your thoughts and prayers.