Hurricane Sandy Knitting

Thanks to Hurricane Sandy giving me a day off (and lots of knitting time in the car over the weekend's visit to the Chiller Theatre convention), I was able to finish two of the five projects currently on my needles.

Project Number One -- Thermis

This is the one that should have made you laugh your ass off when I listed the things that I needed to finish.  All that it needed was the ends woven in, and buttons sewn on, and I already had the buttons with the project since it was a re-knit.  My excuse:  I had to go all the way up to the third floor to find the thread that matched the buttons, and to get my sewing needles.  It turns out, when I opened the hat box I keep my thread in, the matching thread was right on top since the buttons on the first knit of this had been the last thing that I had needed thread for.

Ahem.

So, here it is, and as an added bonus you get to see my Morning Face complete with red mark on my nose from my CPAP:







I will be really warm come the cold weather.

Project Number Two:  Sleepknitting Socks.










I called these my Sleepknitting Socks, because it was a 2x2 rib that I could knit in my sleep.

I also wound my yarn for Color Affection, because the socks were my commuting project and I will need something simple to knit on the train (Color Affection seems like it would be fitting, plus I've been dying to cast on for this).




It's all Tilli Tomas sock yarn, and the colorways are on my stash page.  (That's my way of saying that I can't remember the colorway names and am too lazy to go look it up, so if you need to know so badly then go look it up).

As for the storm, we fared pretty well here in the Dale.  Part of a tree came down in the yard on the other side of my building, and there are some small branches here and there, and some sort of transformer blew out over the train tracks next to us (which is very loud and causes a huge flash -- yes, this happened before, a few months ago), but it was apparently not a danger to us.

Up until the transformer blew, the cats were acting as if it was just another day lounging around the house:

Luciano:




Gibson:




Ellie:




Around 7:30 p.m., I opened a window because I wanted to see what our parking lot looked like.  This got both Ellie's and Gibson's interest, so I kept it open for a little bit so they could investigate:








Luciano was not at all interested (he's not much of a window kitty), and when I picked him up to show him, the wind picked up, so I put him down so I wouldn't get perforated.  The wind freaked Gibson out a little, but Ellie stood her ground.

We survived Sandy without losing power at all, which I'm happy for.  Hopefully the rest of this week will run as smoothly!

WIP Promise

Right now, I have a bunch of WIPs on tap, and I have made a promise to myself to complete at least ONE of them by the end of this month.  When you see them, and see what needs to be done to finish each one, you will probably laugh your ass off when you get to a particular one.

Let's get started with pictures I took 10 days ago (proof of what a slacker I am).

Jolly Roger Shawl:



I cast on for this on September 19, on Talk Like a Pirate Day.  I've done a handful more rows since that (I can really only manage one a night between dinner and bedtime).  I would have loved to have had this for Halloween, but I would need much more time to work on it.  Since there is NO WAY IN HELL it can't be done by the end of October, I'm hoping to at least be done by Thanksgiving.  Twenty-six and a half rows to go!!!!!!

Sleep Knitting Socks:



I cast on for these on September 10, because I needed something to knit on my commute that wasn't too taxing, and also to take on the trails with me when we hike.   I also managed to used my project as a prop for my catches on the trail:





(Disclaimer: if anyone is going to wank at me for having photos of a snake on my blog, just hit the back button right fucking now, because I don't give a shit about your phobias.  It's a goddamn photo of a harmless garter snake, for fuck's sake.)

Hopefully I'll have these done very, very soon.  If not by the end of this month, the beginning of November.

I'm Picking Out a Thermis:



Originally started on January 15.  STOP LAUGHING.  I had finished it pretty quickly, wore it a few times, and it was FUCKING HUGE and flopped around so it sat in a drawer since around March, waiting to be frogged.  I don't remember when I re-knit it, but I re-knit it and right now all it needs is to have the ends woven in and have buttons sewn on.  Sounds simple, but I've been too lazy to go all the way up to the third floor to get my sewing needles and rummage through my hatbox of thread to find the one that matches the buttons.  Okay, you can laugh now.

I'm hoping to do this last piddling bit by the end of October.

Lilah's Blanket:



Started on April 5, I finished the knitting part of it some time in August and just have to finish sewing the ruffle onto the blanket for my stepgranddaughter, who was born July 30.

I'm the worst go-go ever.

Thankfully, she has two other blankets that nicer people than I made for her.  They are crocheted, though.

I'm hoping to have this done by Thanksgiving.

Love Bytes:



Started January 6, I finished the first mitten in about 3 weeks (thanks to shitty weather and the first season of TREME).  I'm a decent way through the second mitten (it looks as though I have already put aside stitches for the thumb -- yes, it has been that long that I don't remember), but haven't picked these up in months.  I should have these done by the winter, if not the end of the year.

I'm only allowed to cast on something else IF I finish the socks (a/k/a my commuting project, and yes, I just almost wrote "cocks" because I am that LSG), and that new project has to also be a project I can do on my commute, AND I can only work on that project while commuting, being a passenger on a car, or otherwise somewhere where I require a small, easily transported project (i.e. on the trail).

That's it for now!