Sock Monkey Dress

sockmonkeydress
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/68299643@N00/.

As they say in Knitty, "Sock Monkeys ... either you love them or you hate them." Well I love them, although probably not enough to wear this dress. See, just when I think I'm wasting too much time checking out knitting websites (to the detriment of my actual knitting time) I find a gem like this to share with my blog readers ... all 3 of them!

Big Mistake

Friday night I went out to dinner with my sister to 1)celebrate the fact that my test was over (I'd be shocked if I didn't pass, but I don't get the results until October 10) and 2) to celebrate my sister's birthday. Everytime I get together with my sister, we just laugh until we cry over how dysfunctional our family is. So anyway, my sister's friend, Tamara, gave her this t-shirt for her birthday; without giving away any personal details that my sister might not want me to blog about, let's just say that this t-shirt is apropos to her current situtation. Also, my sister had a hilarious story about participating in a survey to earn extra money ($125 for filling out a survey about beer) but then she had to drink a huge beer, which she chugged so fast that the guy running the survey made her stay for an hour extra to make sure she was sober. We also made much hilarity over our "brother from another mother" and the fact that some lady at the bar kept stealing my sister's lemon drop Martinis until the manager of the bar kicked her out. Amy, we miss you.

The Perils of ordering yarn online

Okay, I really went back and forth (in my mind) over whether to post about this or not, but since everyone in my knitting Group is on the brink of ordering yarn from Posh, I felt I had to post this. Let me preface this post by saying the woman I spoke with at Posh, Dee, is lovely and she offered to replace the yarn I purchased, but I felt that sending one skein of yarn back to England was just silly. So here are the pictures: on the left, the picture on Posh's website of the color Cosmopolitan, on the right, the actual skein Cosmopolitan, photographed in my house by me!


And actually, I have to say that seeing these side by side on the web, they actually look like they could be the same yarn. But in person, the real Cosmopolitan is orange, purple, blue, green, and white, and on the website I thought it looked green, blue, and yellow. So while one skein of sock yarn is no great loss, I wouldn't want to order a sweater's worth of yarn unless I saw it in person. And I have ordered STR, Zen yarngarden, and Vespers via internet, and never had this problem before. So that's my story, group members, I will bring the yarn to group next time so you can see it in person & tell me what you think.

Amy's Hat

I realize there's been very little knitting on my blog lately; those of you who know me, know that I've got a big honking test on Friday, so I've been studying 24/7. Also I was in Boston on a biz trip last Wed thru Fri, 3 soccer games on Saturday, etc. I purposely didn't bring any knitting w/me to Boston, because I felt that would force me to study, and it did! I'm actually feeling pretty good about the test at this point, but I always freak out at the 11th hour. Last night I started knitting this hat for my sister, Amy, in the fall colors she requested.

Thanks, Mom!

I got up early last Sunday & decided to get Einstein Bagels for my family and coffee for me, so while I was there I picked up an extra coffee for my mom, then dropped by her house for a little chit-chat & to check out her new pond (which she dug herself, took 3 years!) So one of the benefits to being a pack rat is that you can impress your kids by pulling out all sorts of fascinating things that have been in your basement for years. Like these knitting magazines from the 50s and 60s.





My mom says she & my Aunt Susie knit every sweater in this book, I remember the sweaters, Irish knits with woven leather buttons, of course I didn't appreciate them as a child.
My mom also says Aunt Susie was always stealing this pattern book from her, and my mom would have to steal it back. Aunt Susie, if you're reading this, you may print a rebuttal in the comment section.











I love the pictures in this book, they're very glam, all the models have fur hats, lots of black eyeliner and false eyelashes. The inside of the book says it was shot in "the fabulous winter resort of St. Moritz, Switzerland." Altogether there are 10 magazines & I think I'll save additional posts for later, lest I bore you all to death.

Pieces of me (and Cara)

Oh Cara, why must you be in so many pieces! What are the odds that I will finish you? The knitting was fun, but blocking, ironing, and stitching together 13 pieces, not to mention sewing the lining, what are the odds that I will do that? And what's with those oddly shaped pocket flaps in the upper right hand corner of the picture? Is it just me, or do they look like ...? Oh well, maybe it's just me.

Knitting Distractions

So what is keeping me from knitting as much as I'd like to: this, the CAIA exam which I have in 19 days! Yikes! It is chalk full of formulas, statistics, and terms like leptokurtosis and heteroskedasticity. I used to know this stuff stone cold, believe it or not I have an MBA from University of Chicago with concentrations in Finance and Statistics; but that was many years ago & let's just say that my last 6 years as a SAHM have not exactly improved my statistical skills. Plus, my retention is not what it was 20 years ago!

Sizzle

Sizzle
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/68299643@N00/.

I cast on for Sizzle last night. This is what I knit while watching King Kong: 8 rows of seed stitch and 4 rows of stockinette. How pathetic is that? Wendy says you can knock this top out in 3 days, and while a certain person in my knitting group could do that, sadly, I cannot. I think part of the problem is that this yarn is slippery & I'm knitting on aluminum needles, which I have never used before, but I asked my mom for a pair of size 7s & this is what she gave me.