Work in Progress Wednesday v.121

Greetings from the land of Brrrrrrrr!  Winter weather has finally arrived around these parts and it has gone from unusually pleasant to freakishly cold in very short order.  I'm having trouble adjusting.  As I type, I'm huddled up to the fireplace (Mr. Right is traveling on business tonight, or I'd be snuggled up to him), and wearing ALL THE CLOTHES.

I'm also knitting.  True facts, people.  When last we met, I was just about finished with sock #1.  And now, just two short weeks later, I'm just about to turn the heel on sock #2. 

Not bad considering that in between I hosted Mr. Right's parents for 5 days and cooked a ginormous Thanksgiving dinner for 8 people.  Well actually, I cooked dinner for 20-ish people, but there were 8 folks in attendance.  Leftovers, anyone?

I'm hoping I can crank through the rest of sock #2 and make it back here for FO Friday, but that might be cutting it just a little bit close.  We'll see.

Now, it's true confession time.  And boy is it embarrassing.  Remember that Austin Hoodie that I'd just barely started a couple of weeks ago?  I had to put it aside.  Why, you ask?  Well, it calls for a knitted hem.  And it's been sooooooooo long since I've done one that I have to take the time to consult the tutorial.  That I wrote.  Seriously.  I have to go read a tutorial that I wrote 2 years ago to remember how to construct a knitted hem.  That is all kinds of pathetic, my friends.  I don't even have children yet, so I have no excuse for the fact that my brain seems to have liquefied and trickled out my left ear.  I plan on pulling it out tomorrow, and will give it a shot.  I hear it's a pretty good tutorial.
 
Oh, and remember how I was all excited about making homemade mozzarella?  Well.  It was a spectacular failure.  I've no idea what went awry, but when all was said and done and I'd followed very carefully all of the detailed directions, I had slightly sour milk.  Undeterred, I've signed up to take a cheesemaking class on December 9.  I'm hoping for actual cheese this time, but you never know.

In other news, we decorated for Christmas:

Yay! 

ps.  Go check out all the cool craftiness that's happening over at WIPW this week. 

Work in Progress Wednesday v.119

Excellent news, peeps!  The Ugliest Sock Ever has grown on me, and now that it's almost grown up I actually kind of like it.  It's still umm... vivid? But it's kind of fun I think.  Proof:

And once it has a mate, I think they'll brighten things up considerably this winter.  That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

More excellent news, too!  I actually managed to start a second project.  It's SO nice to have the knitting mojo back and to have stuff to work on these days.  I'm loving it.  This...

...is the very beginning of an Austin Hoodie.  I've had this pattern in my queue for aaaaaaages, and last year at Stitches West, in a frenzy of It's-my-birthday-there-is-no-budget shopping, I picked up 5 skeins of madelinetosh's Tosh Sock in the Calligraphy colorway so that I could finally start knitting it.

Unfortunately, the yarn was so pretty and so expensive that I was a little paralyzed by fear:  What if I knit the wrong size?  What if I screw it up?  What if it's too small?  Too big?  In the end, I realized that none of these things would be anything near the end of the world, so I dove in.  So far?  It's lovely to knit with, though as you can see it's still very early.  It's also kind of a big pain in the bum to alternate skeins, but I really want to avoid obvious changes from skein to skein, so I'll deal.  I can't wait to wear it!

That's what's cooking around these parts these days.  At least on the needles.  In other news, I've finally managed to gather the elusive ingredients required and am going to make CHEESE this week.  Crazy, no?  I'll let you know how it goes, and whether I end up witha tasty pizza or a burnt out shell of a kitchen.  Fingers crossed on that one!

See you all over at WIPW!

Work in Progress Wednesday v.117

The knitting is back, baby!  I'm so excited that I was finally able to get a project started, I can't stand it.  After weeks (months?) of having not the right yarn (some times) or not the right needles (almost always) for anything I wanted to knit, I *finally* managed to push through and get a pair of socks started.  They're nothing fancy by a loooooong stretch, just 3 x 1 ribbing, but they're knitting -- and at this point, I'll take it.

Here's the sock in question:

They might possibly end up being the ugliest socks I've ever seen, but I totally don't care.  Well, I care a little bit, but enough to stop.  I've had this skein of self-striping yarn in my stash for ages. Before I tore into it, it looked like this:

A little loud, but not bad.  I've never knit with self-striping yarn before, and really wanted to give it a try.  Now I'm just confused.  Red!  Green!  Yellow!  Rasta socks!  With... pink and blue?  And peach?  For serious?  I'm unimpressed.  But I am beyond happy to be knitting again so I will not complain.  Very much.

In other news, the sale of Mr. Right's house closes in about an hour, and we're mostly unpacked and settled here, so I get to squeeze in a little blogging now and again, and hopefully catch up on my bloggy reading and see what y'all have been up to while I've been moving house.  Yay!  I also managed to squeeze in my first Zumba class this morning, and wow.  The only way I could manage to look any dorkier is if I were to be wearing those socks.  It's definitely time to work on the coordination a bit. 

So while I'm over here practicing my salsa moves, you go check out all the rest of the WIPW entries over at Tami's.  I'll see you there!