Sorry for the lack of updates last week. I had planned to spend most of last week dyeing Blue - and maybe even being proactive and dyeing Alaskan Ice Tea as well - but I was struck down by a cold.  I haven't been able to do much the last few days but lie on the couch, marathon Supernatural, and whine. I haven't even had the energy to knit, which is really depressing.

Luckily my husband has been taking very good care of me, and Panda has taken it upon herself to be my fuzzy nurse.

I'm feeling a little better today, and hopefully the Dayquil will kick in enough that I can maybe at least get the big dyepots mixed so I can start dyeing when I stop dying.

Finally, a finished project!

It is, of course, not one of the listed works-in-progress that I blogged about before.  I'm too easily distracted by new patterns and yarns to do something as sensible as finish something I've already started. No no, this was a new project - a blanket for my neighbor's newborn daughter, Coral.  Nobody knew if my neighbor was going to have a boy or a girl, so I wasn't able to start this project until she was born... after which I promptly ran out to Michael's and bought a bunch of yarn in the appropriate colors.

I'd had the pattern picked out for weeks: The Chevron Baby Blanket by Espoace Tricot.  I wanted the colors to reflect her name - something aquatic and reminiscent of a mermaid lagoon.  I used Red Heart Soft (100% acrylic worsted weight) in Grape, Avacado, Teal, Deep Sea, and Sea Foam.  The pattern is deceptively simple, using yarnover increases to create the points of each chevron, and mitered decreases to create each valley.  I modified the stripe pattern slightly to have more purple stripes and make it a little more feminine.

I was able to do one or two stripes per day (each stripe is 10 rows) between dyeing and other crafts and getting obsessed with Final Fantasy XIV, and wound up giving Coral her blanket on her three week "birthday."  Her big brother has his own special blankie that another family friend crocheted for him, and he thought it was really cool that his little sister would have one now, too.

Without further adieu, PICTURES!

The finished blanket. Measured about 28x35.

 Mid-blocking. My two assistants were Panda the Cat and Orson Scott Card :)

Some nice natural light photos.

We also gave the new parents a gift! We'd all gotten together to play CaH a few weeks ago and they absolutely loved the game, so now they have their own set of cards.

Just an FYI, hubby and I are going to be travelling back down to SF next week, so blog posts will probably be sporadic.

Mint Julep awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy!

I got a towtruck out to jumpstart my car (Bea, as she prefers to be known) so I was able to get to the post office today!

Are you excited? I'm excited.

Everyone who ordered Mint Julep should be receiving an email shortly with your tracking number on it.  US customers should expect theirs on Monday or Tuesday; international customers, it will probably take another week or so to get to you.

I apologize again for the delay.  It shouldn't happen again. Here's a picture of an otter to make you forgive me.

Also, did you know that otters hold hands while sleeping

so they don't drift away from each other? TOO CUTE.

I'll be posting the info for September's colorway, White Russian, shortly. 

Well crap.

So, you guys know how I was in SF the last 10 days or so visiting my family? We took hubby's car down there and left mine in the garage, and someone (totally not me) left my car door ever so slightly opened and sucked all the sweet life out of the battery.  I have jumper cables, but they're too short to reach from inside the garage to a car outside, and now I have to get a tow truck to help me.  They're ridiculously expensive if you don't have roadside assistance through your insurance. Did you know that? I didn't know that.  But they are.  And I freaking just changed insurance, new policy (including roadside assistance) effective midnight tonight... so no tow truck until tomorrow morning.  Which means I can't get to the post office to mail Mint Julep on time. Sad face.  My deepest apologies to all of you who ordered MJ, but it won't be going out until tomorrow.

Taking this show on the road...

Hubby and I spent about 12 hours yesterday driving from Portland down to San Francisco.  He needs to spend some time at his company's SF and SoCal offices, which means I get to spend some time visiting my family who I haven't seen in months.

The Mint Julep yarn came along for the ride, though, as did my ball winder, yardage counter, scale, and swift.  This is definitely a working vacation for me.  Tonight, after spending the day hanging out and doing some shopping with my mom, I got the first kilo of MJ all divvied up into its 100g skeins and wrapped them in their cute labels.  Tomorrow, after running errands and donating my hair, it will be time to get started on the second kilo.

I may not be updating as much this week, as I'll be pretty busy and don't have regular access to a computer - I'm writing this post on my mom's laptop in the kitchen. Comments come straight to my email on my phone though, so I'll be sure to respond to them.

I'm sick and it's terrible.

Getting a cold in the summer should be outlawed.  It's not fair. It's all sunny outside and I have a canvas ready to paint and all I want to do is curl up with a blankie and watch Tiny Toons on the couch.

Well, watch Tiny Toons and wind the undyed yarn for the Mint Julep colorway, which arrived today a bit behind schedule.

It's also my six-month wedding anniversary, more accurately called a "semiversary."  Pretty sure we're having grilled cheese with our champagne, 'cuz I don't know that I can even leave the house right now.

This is how I will look after a glass of champagne with a DayQuil chaser.

I'm no good at being sick. Please make it stop.

What are you knitting?

I'm one of those people who always has multiple projects on the needles because one of two things always happens:

1. I get bored and/or frustrated and have to start something new to keep myself from lighting the project on fire.
2. Some shiny new pattern or technique catches my fancy and I just HAVE TO MAKE IT RIGHT NOW OMG!!

Right now I have three four things going:

Slytherin socks!

started: July 2011

These are knee-high sports socks in the colors of House Slytherin.  In the picture you can see the other pair I made in Gryffindor colors... which took me over 6 years to complete.  Granted I was working on those very sporadically, but it looks like the second pair is right on track to take at least that long.

The pattern was originally a paid pattern available from atypically.knit, but that website has been down for a few years now.  You can still find the pattern in the Charmed Knits book, along with several more awesome Harry Potter knits.  The book has gone out of print but there are still a few dozen used copies floating around Amazon.

I'm using Brown Sheep Nature Spun fingering in Enchanted Forest and Silver Sage.  Someday, perhaps, I will make matching scarves for both of these pairs of socks, since Nature Spun has those same colors available in worsted weight.  Someday...

Slipstream Socks!

started: March 2013

I looked around forever trying to find the right pattern to use with this yarn - KnitPicks Imagination in Giant Peach, a color that has since been discontinued.  I must have frogged a dozen different patterns because they just didn't look right with the colorway.  Then finally, in the latest issue of Knitty, these socks appeared.  I'm just about to reach the heel turn on the first sock and I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out.  The pattern is fairly complex, with 3 different charts for each size of either foot, but it's easy to follow so far and I'm learning how to do 2-stitch-wide cables without using a cable needle... which is kind of like sorcery.

Bergen Street Cardigan

started: November 2011

I started this sweater to keep me sane during the worst class I've ever had to take - a once-a-week, 4-hour lecture on art, power, and sexuality in Renaissance Italy.  Knitting was the only thing that kept me from falling asleep.  The last thing I need to make is the button band, which I don't think I've touched in about 6 months. I'm actually kind of scared to finish this sweater, since I've gained a bit of weight since I started working on it and now I'm scared that after all this work, it won't fit me :(

Knit in KnitPicks Swish DK in Marine Heather and Cobblestone Heather. Pattern is from KnitPicks, too. I have a few extra balls of each so - when I do eventually someday finish the sweater - I plan on adding pockets and a hood, because a girl has needs.

Biker Boy

started: I don't even remember anymore.

I started knitting this many years ago as a Christmas present for my brother. It was my first attempt at a sweater and I had no idea how much work was ahead of me - my brother is a very large man.  This project has been living in a box in my yarn closet (or shelf or drawer, depending on where I was living at the time) and I really don't know if I'll ever finish it. I think I've even lost the grey that I used on that bottom edge. All I've gotten done is a few inches on the back panel. Odds are good my brother has forgotten I ever promised him this sweater, but I can feel it sometimes, watching me... waiting... wanting to be whole...

Pattern is from Debbie Stoller's Son of Stitch and Bitch and is being knit in KnitPicks WotA Worsted in Coal and a mystery gray, possibly Dove Heather.

So, what little UFOs (unfinished objects) do you have cluttering up your life?

Also, a reminder that there are still 15 slots left for the July Cosmopolitan mailing. Use the PayPal button at the top of the page to subscribe!