the other day (Wednesday, I think?) I finished the washcloth. well, almost. I finished knitting it. I still need to tuck all the ends in. I haven’t really had time to though.

we’ve been busy car shopping. we’ve been looking at a Vibe and dh is going to test out the VW Jetta they have (would have tested it Wednesday, but they couldn’t find the keys). we’ll see how things go.

oh, and when I got home last night, there was the yarn gifted to me to finish the birthday socks. so those will hopefully be finished soon. yay!

I’m planning on going to Yarnover this weekend. gonna try to just look - no buying. got to keep up with the yarn challenge (which is going surprisingly well, I must say).

I finished the second Potato Chip scarf this weekend - photos coming soon. I’m undecided if I like it - depending on the light, the colors blend and look a bit muddy, other times it looks nice. hopefully mom will like it.

since I finished that and can’t quite get the motivation to finish any of the WIPs, I was running around at 9pm in search of another project. DH was laughing his head off at me - figured I’m miss all of Grey’s Anatomy by the time I found everything. (in reality, it only took me about 5 minutes to find everything - had to steal the dpn needles from a practice sock I’ve abandoned. then went in search of a circ needle and the only one I thought I had wasn’t the correct size. then I realized I had the Denise set. duh! and I didn’t even need to steal the needles out of another project - they were right there waiting for me). so I’m now working on another instant grat. project - a reverse bloom washcloth in green CP Chenille. (pattern in Weekend Knitting or IK Winter 03). got most of the way thru one petal during what remained of the Grey’s catch-up episode. and I got the equivalent of one petal done on the bus this morning.

in non-knitting news, I was posessed to make bath salts this weekend too. they are sitting prettily in bottles in the bathroom window. I want to go buy more bottles and make up some more.

oh, and I also managed to finally get the Knit Picks swatch washed - thru it in the wash on the handwash cycle. it didn’t felt (yay!). haven’t remeasured yet to see if it grew/bloomed on me yet. also learned that I cast off a bit tight. need to work on that… so hopefully I can get started on the sweater it’s intended for soon.

why did I not heed standard knitterly advise and buy an extra ball of yarn? I’m halfway thru the foot of birthday sock #2 and I’ll be lucky if I can get 3 rows out of the yarn that remains. I attempted to count, and I need about 20 rows plus the toe decrease rows. *sigh* wouldn’t be nearly as bad if I didn’t have to concern myself with the Yarn Focus Challenge (I used my April free day last weekend). even still, I still would be annoyed that I had to buy a full ball of yarn when I’m only going to need like 1/8 of it.

oh, well. I did post a request on a couple places, and someone on the sockknitters group said she has some that she can send me. *happy dance*

apologies to the birthday girl, who’ll be getting her socks a little bit late.

since I’m stuck, I decided to cast on a new project. I’m making another curly-q scarf. this time in Bernat Frenzy - Panic Pink & the light blue. for future reference (I have more Frenzy and may make another from it): CO 73 sts on Denise 15s with the 52″ cord (which probably still won’t be long enough.). I’m 4 rows in (halfway, row-wise) and am a bit annoyed with it. the yarn keeps slipping off the needles [insert wish for bamboo interchangeable set here]. also, cuz of the taper of the needles, I have to make sure I finish each stitch (especially the increases), otherwise they end up too small and won’t slide past the tips to the bulk of the needle.

oh, on a positive note, one of the moms at dance last night admired the socks and offered to pay me to make them (she said she can think of 4 pairs she’d want). will have to ponder this - not sure if I want to knit for sale (deadlines and other pressures), and if I do, I’ll have to sort out what to charge and how long this pair took so I can give a good estimate. I’m tempted to do it (after I make sure that what I’d want to charge would be reasonable) - the socks are kind of fun to make and it’d be nice to have some extra yarn pocket money. I might try to find a different lace pattern to work between the beads, for something different.

I’m off to WI this weekend to meet up with some friends for a crafting weekend. most of them will be quilting/sewing. I’m going to alternate the sewing with knitting.

While I’m down there, I hope to hit up some of the yarn shops in Delavan, Milwaukee & Racine. (one of the quilters is a newer knitter, and I think another knitter will be there too. I may ‘drag’ them along with me. ;)) Saturday will probably be my ‘free day’ for the challenge as well. We’ll see if I can restrain myself from buying yarn while there or not (if not, then I may use it the following weekend at the guild’s Yarnover event)

oh, and I’ll probably wake up my sister and visit her and the kids (maybe I can get a pic of them all modeling the hats, heck with the warmish weather!). if the socks aren’t done, I can at least have Lilin try on the first sock to see how I did fit-wise and alter the second one if necessary. so, I hope she reads this and isn’t completely shocked when I show up in her house. ;)

I pulled out the easter egg dyes on Sunday and came out with this:

It’s some crewel/needlework wool I picked up at the thrift shop a while back. I love how the colors came out!

also, as of Monday night:

join me in the heel admiration society.

one sock done, one to go

the toe looks a bit wonky. will have to practice a bit more…

yesterday I finished swatching my Wool of the Andes - now, to measure and abuse the swatch. then I can start my sweater.

last night I strung the beads for sock two. so far today I’ve managed to get thru the cast on, first beady bit, and one row of lace. more to be done on the bus tonight. I’m a little worried that I’m going to run out of yarn though. anyone have some leftover Dale Baby Ull in the purple shown above? (I have a feeling I’ll run out 3 rows away from grafting the toe or something ridiculous like that. *sigh*)