Mineraloid Gel

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I picked up a little Mineraloid Gel a little while back. Just a few balls, some in my favorite colors and some in colors I normally wouldn't choose, but I was making an effort to break out of my color comfort zone.

Ok, maybe more than just a "few" balls. I couldn't help myself! I just have an eee.ma.sih.tee for sock yarn. And I wanna knit socks!!!

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So what all did I get? Take a look...

Some blues. I really like the darker one and prolly shoulda picked up more.

Some reds. One is very bright; V saw it up close and commented on its retina piercing brightness. I'm currently using this for the socks you saw in progress here. The other is more rust or orange than I like. Perhaps I'll change my mind once it is knitted up.

A green. Green has never been my color, so this will be gift socks to someone.

A light brown. I was thinking it might be a good choice for a guy who doesn't want something too bright or colorful.



I love this fuchsia pink. (I later picked up 1 more)

And my favorite is the purple, hence 3 balls. (I later picked up one more)

Oh, and the 2 balls at the top of the stack is just some Re.gia Stretch.

I'm supposed to be on a yarn diet this year and just shop from stash. So please confirm that sock yarn doesn't count!!! After rough count of all the sock yarn in my stash and knowing that I knit socks at a rate of one pair per month (if I knit nothing else but socks), I am all set in the sock yarn dept for the next 5.5 years. You do the math. Despite this, I still can't help looking though...

I have finished the 3rd bag strap, this one is for the burgundy bag. You can see the knitted handles for the red and black bags plus the fabric liners for all three bags over here. The ball is in V's court now, she will figure out how to attach these to the bags either before or after sewing on the fabric liner.

Pair 4 Sock 1 64st 2.25mm

Related posts:
10Apr2009 post (7 Photos)

I do have one sock finished for Pair 4. It was a hasty finish at the cuff because I just wanted to get it over with. I like the front side. Sorry about the photos, it was not a good marriage of sock & lighting that day.

Not satisfied with how the side looks. I think I'd like the XO motif to move away from the back and more towards the sides.

If you look at the photos of the back heel from the last post, you will see how snug it fits from how stretched out the knitting & cables appear. It was fitting snugly (not in a very bad way) around my leg near the ankles, and as I worked upwards, I decided to add a couple of stitches on the sides to help the top part fit my widening leg. This is why you see this odd cable twist come out of nowhere at the side (near the top). Very sloppily done indeed.

The front cuff section is similar to the mitts. In my haste to finish, I did not put much thought into the back cuff section and it shows.

I have started Sock 2 with 4 extra stitches. As a result of this change, I had to make a minor tweak to the small cable twist on the front side, and I redid the entire back because I did not like the way it was arranged in Sock 1. Slow progress here. I thought I was done with the heel flap, then I discovered I had 35 sts! Where did that extra stitch come from? Oh! Right, I moved 1 st from the instep to the other needle so that I could start that needle with a knit stitch instead of a purl stitch. My bad for not paying attention and moving it back to the instep needle before starting the heel flap. I've just finished reknitting the heel flap and will start the whole heel turn magic and gusset rounds when I have a good chunk of time to devote to it.



V came by and brought this DVD with her. We watched it this afternoon and OMG it was sooooo hilarious!!! It was refreshing to hear humour with clean language.



Here's a pic of her on stage in this performance. She looks great for her 50s. (I think you can see a larger pic by clicking on it)

Copyright © Smariek Knits 2005-2009. All full copyright rights are reserved by Smariek Knits.
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molasses on a cold winter's day

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Very little knitting happening in my corner of the world. DH went on a business trip Research Triangle Park and brought back the magnet you see above. I specifically asked him for an (almost) unbreakable magnet, because Missy has played with the breakable ones on the fridge and they eventually get dropped onto the floor. Missy is normally an angel when DH is around and then turns into The Little Terror when he is not around. So it's been a trying time for us both while DH was away, leaving me exhausted at the end of the day and no knitting accomplished.

I had the pleasure of driving to my local airport, Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC) for the very first time to drop him off, and again during rush hour to pick him up. It was pouring rain when I drove him to the airport and I could not get a good feel for the airport layout or a good look at the signs. It was a clear day when I went to pick him up. I must say that the signage could be improved there. It is not quite as good as my previous local airport San Francisco International Airport (SFO) which made perfect sense to me, although having gone there on and off during the past several decades may have helped me gain an intuitive feel for how to manoeuvre around the place.

Note to self for the next time I need to drive to the SJ airport during rush hour: DO NOT take 101 to Guadelupe. It was a dead slow crawl. I could have walked faster! Ok, not really, but it sure did seem that way while I was stuck in traffic. Next time take Central Expy.

So besides not knitting, I haven't much time to catch up in the blog reading dept and don't even ask me about the state of my email messages. I am also not very good with Ravelry mail as I don't always think to check them and I can't seem to keep the number of unread messages under 3 digits cough127cough. I did however finally managed to figure out how to add my followers to my sidebar. So this is a small victory for me. See? It's in my sidebar! :-)

Here I am sipping on my cup of coffee while I contemplate giving up coffee again. I only started drinking coffee again in the fall, beginning with now and then, and then working up to having it daily. I am wondering whether the coffee is what is causing the underarm/side/arm pain I've been having on and off since about roughly the same time I started drinking it again. Yeah, it's a real pain, quite bothersome at times and then sometimes not very noticeable. Sometimes there is a bit of numbness in my arm, as if I had lost just a bit of circulation. Perhaps it is the coffee. Perhaps it is bad posture in front of the computer. Perhaps a bit of both. However when the underarm pain is at its worst, I don't even notice the pain I experience from my left dpn resting on my left ring finger. This is getting a little better, I am trying not to hold the needle as tightly.



I have finally finished this trilogy, The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, and am glad I can say it's done and over with. Now I can move on to something else. I've started this book of short stories, The Ladies ofGrace Adieu, because I recently finished and enjoyed reading Susanna Clarke's other novel Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrelll. Unfortunately I haven't been able to get into it, perhaps I'm just not in the mood for it right now and will just have to try again later. What do you do when you are between books? It is not like knitting where you'll have a couple of big projects and some little ones to fill in the gap. I don't really have a "go to" book to fill in the gap.


Regia 4Ply Color Sock Yarn

I recently picked up some sock yarn from a LYS in San Mateo, Nine Rubies, new stuff that I have never knitted with before. They have some lovely local hand-dyed sock yarn, BayWood Yarns (RavProfile, blog, Flickr photos), merino in gorgeous colorways. I was very tempted. However my goal was to get something with nylon content, such as Opal or Regia which Suzann had recommended. And I really could not justify getting more "pure" fibery goodness when I had recently added these 14 hanks to my stash. So I picked up 2 balls of Regia 4 Ply Color (Ravelry Link) because it is 75% wool 25% nylon.

Regia Silk Color Sock Yarn

I also threw in 2 balls of Regia Silk Color (Ravelry Link), a wool/nylon/silk blend. And I picked up Trekking Pro Natura (Ravelry Link), a wool/bamboo blend, to try out because I vaguely recall somebody mentioning this brand. Well, this should keep me busy!

Trekking Pro Natura Sock Yarn

It's too bad that Nine Rubies is a bit of a drive for me. I only happened to be in the area because I was meeting a friend at Hillsdale Mall. This yarn store had a sitting area on one side where several knitters were gathered and it looked like such a fun thing to do!

I've got more yarny goodness to share with y'all, I just haven't had time to get my pics lined up. I also have sock knitting adventures to share too ... yes, still working on Practice Pair of Socks #2.

Copyright © Smariek Knits 2005-2009. All full copyright rights are reserved by Smariek Knits.
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Wheee!

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DH went shopping one day and look what fell into the shopping basket... a Nintendo Wii !!!

When you open the side, you find 2 little trays...

of stuff...

So we've borrowed some games, and I have to say I am hooked on Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 All-Play:

Missy finds Mario Kart really cute (and so do I up to a certain point):

And I am undecided on Boom Blox:

... because it is frustratingly addictive and addictively frustrating.

Other reasons to go wheeee! include these:

Lots and lots of Cherry Tree Hill Super Solids. :-D

Quite bright!

This is a good guy color.

Whenever I see this color, I always think of the nursery rhyme here we go round the mulberry bush.

The one above is bright!

Lovely shade.

Although nice, this is rather boring...

Not sure if my old eyes will enjoy knitting with this last color. They are all really beautiful. I picked them up with socks in mind, then later noticed that they're all 100% merino with no nylon content, so perhaps socks isn't such a good idea. Maybe mitts then... lotsa mitts! lol

I have never worked from hanks before so not sure what I need to do. Maybe this makes a good excuse to get one of these Mama Bear Swifts, which means I would also need a Ball Winder too.
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Copyright © Smariek Knits 2005-2009. All full copyright rights are reserved by Smariek Knits.

Dreaming about the Feeding Frenzy

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What feeding frenzy? The one at Elann, of course! The Needful Yarns Filtes King Australian Merino that was offered this morning at 9AM.

One thing I hadn't mention in my recent posts is that I have been sick much of November. It all seemed to unfold in slow motion really, starting at the beginning of the month with persistent aches on my left side. Then whammo, a week before Thanksgiving I was hit with what was clearly a cold. Boo! I was starting to feel a little better on Thanksgiving -- well enough to cook dinner -- and thought I was on the road to recovery on Friday. Then Saturday rolled around and I woke up feeling worse. Sunday, not better. Monday, a little better. Tuesday, worse.



Anyhow, when I saw the Australian Merino in my snips, I decided it wasn't really for me. It had a sort of marled look that wasn't really my thing. I prefer solids. But if I had to choose colors I liked, they would have been Blackberry, Italian Plum, Night Sky, Flannel, Vesuvius, and maybe Bella Notte. But I had no plans to buy. There was no need to force myself out of bed before 9 AM on Tuesday. And as I discovered on Tuesday morning, it would not have happened anyhow because I was lying in bed, asleep, too sick to get up.

But I did dream about joining in the feeding frenzy that was bound to happen at 9AM. In my mild flu induced delirium, I dreamt of participating in the feeding frenzy from my iPod! Yes, trying to add yarn on that itty bitty screen. It was a slow and frustrating endeavor. But I somehow managed to add the colors I liked, got to checkout and watched as the balls jumped out of my shopping cart. In the end, I got nothing. Nada. Zilch.

So I slept through the 9AM feeding frenzy, and didn't roll out of bed until just before noon. Had some chicken noodle soup. Took my meds. Crawled back into bed.

Then I reached over for my little iPod to check something and take a quick peek. I was surprised to find that the Australian Merino yarn was not sold out! There were 6 colors left: Italian Plum, Bella Notte, Saffron Medley, Black Forest, Stratus Blue, and Matterhorn.



I wasn't interested in Matterhorn. I was indifferent to Black Forest. Saffron Medley is far from any color I would normally gravitate towards.

I'm not sure what happened. Somehow a "few" balls of Italian Plum, Bella Notte, and Stratus Blue found their way into my shopping cart, along with a "few" balls of Elann Baby Cashmere in Tapestry Blue and Claret. I'm thinking the Claret might be as close as I can get to matching the red Regina Scarf I made my MIL for Christmas. It's interesting how I can remember all 16 digits of my credit card. ;-) In a few minutes it was a done deal.

I don't know what came over me because within an hour I went back to pick up the Saffron Medley and Black Forest! Must have been a side effect of my flu induced delirium.... yeah, that's it!

Copyright © Smariek Knits 2005-2008. All full copyright rights are reserved by Smariek Knits.

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