the shit i knit

Affiknitty Socks

This pair of socks is named after the gal who gave me the yarn I used to make them with. I wanted to do something snazzy to show it off and not just churn out another pair of stockinette socks (not like I do that half the time or anything...who me? nah!) Keep an eye out for the rows of knits which line up on either side of the top panel and in the back of the cuff. If you get to a spot where there’s a purl in that row it’s time to call Kermit over to do some frogging. The pattern is written for a slipstitch short row heel and toe but you could easily substitute another short row technique or a heel cup.

Materials:
Fleece Artist SeaWool (this yarn is quite a bit heavier than you’re average fingering weight yarn imho....more like a sport weight)
size 2 double pointed needles
notions for finishing
2 stitch markers
your foot’s measurement

Gauge:
16 stitches per 2 inches on size 2 needles. since this pattern uses your foot’s measurement to determine length row gauge is not important.

Stitch Pattern:
row #1: k1, p2, k3, p2, k5, p1, k4
row #2: p2, k5, p2, k3, p1, k1, p1, k3
row #3: k1, [p2, k3]x2, [p1, k1]x2, p1, k2
row #4: k2, p2, k1, p2, k5, p1, k1, p1, k3
row #5: k3, p1, k1, p1, k5, [p1, k1]x2, p1, k2
row #6: k2, p2, k1, p2, k3, [p1, k1]x4
row #7: k1, p2, k3, p2, [k1, p1]x5
row #8: p2, k5, p2, k1, [p1, k1]x4
row #9: k1, p2, k3, p2, k10
row #10; k2, p2, k1, p2, k2, p9
row #11: k3, p1, k1, p1, k12
row #12: k2, p2, k1, p2, k2, p9

Directions:
-cast on 54 sts on size #2 dpn needles

-join and work in k1, p1 ribbing for 8 rows

- place marker. work the entire stitch pattern #1-12 (one pattern repeat) twice. the stitch pattern (18sts) will occur 3 times per round

-on row #25 you will begin centering the front panel of the top of foot. work the first 9 stitches of row 1. next 27 knit stitches in stockinette stitch and place your second marker, followed by all 18 stitches of row 1.

-continue in this way for rows 2-8. your first stitch marker denotes the beginning of a new pattern row. work the first 9 stitches of each row after this marker followed by 27 stitches in stockinette. at your next marker work all 18 stitches of the pattern row.

- when you reach row #33 (pattern row #9) work only the first 8 stitches after your marker as in row #9. switch to a new needle and work 27 stitches in stockinette stitch and slip one more stitch onto your working needle. these 28 stitches will be your heel. (this pattern is worked with a slip stitch-short row heel)

-decrease one stitch at the beginning of each row,. then work the remaining stitches in stockinette slipping the last stitch. repeat these decreases until you have 10 stitches on your working needle.

-work in stockinette stitch (for this first row it will be a purl row) across all 12 stitches. pick up the last slipped stitch.

-continue in this manner until you have worked back up to 28 stitches. you should be at the second stitch marker. (ie on the opposite side of the heel which you began on.

-work all 18 stitches in row #9 of the chart until you reach the next marker. work first 9 stitches of the next row and continue working with the first 9 stitches of each row after your first marker, followed by 27 stockinette stitches until you reach the next marker, and then all 18 stitches of that pattern row.

-approximately 1.5” from the end of your foot measurement split the stitches and work them just as you worked the heel. it looks best if you begin your toe after working row #12 so you have that nice line of garter stitch.

- slip the last stitch from the back needle (ie opposite end of the needle from the working yarn) onto the front needle. graft the two sets of live stitches together with the kitchener stitch.

weave in ends. TADA!

I’m a lil 50/50 on this yarn. It’s way thicker than ‘fingering’ I think and I don’t know if I’m sold on the seacell glossyness. My main problem however is the colouring throughout the skein is uneven. There’s splotches where it is MUCH lighter. My feeling is this is the seacell and where there is more seacell vs wool in the yarn it is lighter. I’m guessing this is the case because there are also random clumps of seacell fiber here and there that I’m picking out of the yarn as I go and they barely have picked up any die.

all in all they are a pretty pair of socks. this isn’t a yarn I would’ve probably bought on my own but the socks are gorgeous and they fill a colour gap in my sock drawer I didn’t realize I had!

Sykes
A Dickensian Scarf





I started knitting this while watching "Oliver Twist" on *Masterpiece Theater*....and named it after my favorite character in the novel-movie Bill Sykes. (played in this version by the impeccable Tom Hardy) Sykes is a dark, seedy fellow but not without his moments. He’s very much a product of his circumstances. He is also very charismatic and not without heart. (or, maybe that's just how Hardy played him...no comment) Likewise this scarf is dark with complex looking twisting paths and a jagged, broken rib edge. It's a unisex design not so boring you want to jab your eyes out while knitting it. Don't worry...I won't peach about all the boring scarves you've frogged in the past! The wrong side of this scarf lays very flat and it is easily folded.







materials
220 yards worsted weight yarn-I used dark grey wool which I koolaid dyed with blue lemonade and splotches of Wilton’s in complimentary colours. If you decide to make your scarf longer than 60” you may need more yarn.
size 9 needle
notions as needed

gauge
5 stitches per inch blocked...about 7” wide lightly stretched (for those of you who don’t want to block a swatch, wink wink)

construction
-cast on 37 stitches (I used long tail)
-knit 8 edge rows
-knit pattern repeat 13 times (aprox 6”)
-knit 8 edge rows
-castoff

edge
row#1, 3, 7, 9: k1, p1
row#2, 4, 6, 8: p1, k1

pattern
-on even rows repeat the stitches as they face you, knit the knits and purl the purls.

row#1,3: k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, p4, [k1, p5]x3, k1, p4, k1, p1, k1, p1, k1

row#5, 7, 21, 23: p1, k1, p1, k1, p4, [k1, p1, k1, p3]x4, p1, k1, p1, k1, p1

row#9, 11, 17, 19: k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, p2, [k1, p3, k1, p1]x4, p1, k1, p1, k1, p1, k1

row#13, 15: p1, k1, p1, k1, p2, k1 [p5, k1]x4, p2, k1, p1, k1, p1




In this picture I am wearing it folded in half and then wrapped around my neck and looped through the middle for a cowl-collar effect...very Dickensian!

...about things other than what movies I'm watching/books I'm reading/shit I'm knitting/dogs who are climbing on me...

but let's face it. I live in ohio. my life? not exactly exciting.

I have been up to something lately though. I didn't do nanowrimo this year. SURPRISE! I never finish it. I never even get *close*...but this year I had an excuse. My FIL died. So I challengd myself to do it in December...and I did. I had 50k words (which is their approximation) and above that by far by the end of the month.

The problem was? I wrote it out.....long hand.....in notebooks...with a fountain pen. (the fountain pen is very important)

Anyways I *finally* finished typing it all yesterday. Now I get the fun task of EDITING! ARGH! This will probably take months...and then what do I do? Magically get it published?

Being the big Kindle fan that I am I've been thinking about releasing it on Kindle. I mean...if I don't charge anything for it there is a chance people will read it. That's sort of the point of writing. I mean it's wonderful to sit down and tell a story, and very self gratifing but I should do something more with it...namely SHARE. Oh well we'll see.

In knitting news I've been knitting my knitpal knarlyknitter's scarves lately and it inspired me to design one of my own. She wrote an argyle purling stitch pattern which is just so cute. I comboed a few stitches and I'm writing out a sort of peacock feather inspired pattern.

Of course I did knit and design a peacoat....but that's a whole different story and would take a much longer post. nudge me about it.

I know I am in the *minority* here but ever since I first read wuthering heights some 11 odd years ago I've always thought that Heathcliff really WAS an Earnshaw. I think the signs are there, the hints, the clues, et cetera and reading the novel that way *totally* ups the creepy gothic horrorness of it.

So Masterpiece Theatre Classic is showing an adaptation of Wuthering Heights and so far? I really fucking love it with *one* glaring exception. I can get past the historicly inacurate costuming and the fact that they started midway through the Linton-Cathy2 story and then back tracked to the Cathy1-Heathcliff story. I *love* that Cathy1 is NOT a bitch/psycho from hell and I can not say enough good things about Heathcliff. (I've only seen this actor once before in the last star trek movie as jean luc picard's young clone. dude needs to get his teeth done and go be a star because he is fantastic. his voice melts kraft singles)

BUT THE MADE HEATHCLIFF AND CATHY1 HAVE SEX!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

That is *so* not in the book.........at all. In fact it is quite central to the book THAT THEY DIDN'T....

Even if you don't take it as them being blood relations it is STILL totally not in the book. Yes, the sex scene was nice but COME ON......that's such a drastic rewrite. Also...once again....Heathcliff lays down with Cathy1's corpse which *never* happens in the book.....le sigh....

I have such high hopes for these masterpiece theatre things and they always manage to dash them. A for casting. B for overall tone and 'gothic'ness. C for sticking to the book.

A month ago my father in law went into the hospital and unfortunatly passed away. :( obviously that sucked.

nothing much else has happened.

I finished my bed spread....sort of....I haven't finished weaving in the ends...because I haven't given it much of my attention :P

I bought a bunch of new glasses on the internet at zennioptical.com. 8 bucks....how fugly/funky can I get for 8 bucks? We shall see.

I got myself a kindle and have been reading a lot. I wanted to see Twilight before I started the books (so having read the book wouldn't ruin the movie) but I'm glad I read the first book (okay and part of the second) before I saw it because they cut out most of the action plot from the film. They kept all the brooding romance (which I will not deny was quite nice....Pattinson was PERFECT as Edward) but they botched the plot so bad it barely made sense and I had to fill nathan in on the drive home. (thank god he said he 'kind of liked it'....I can drag him to the other films now without feeling bad) I really liked the book. I obviously *ADORED* the pride and prejudice paralles, obviously :P, and I read the entire thing in 3 days. (it's over 500 pages!) So yeah I *really* liked it. Book 2 is not quite as good but isn't that always the way it is with a series?

I accidently deleated my novel folder on my hard drive...and in anger I just said fuck it as far as nano was concerened and didn't even try...then my lap top broke and while backing up my stuff I saw I had saved that folder 2 weeks before I deleated it so I started again. I don't know why (perhaps because the shit is set in 1926 but I feel more creativly inclined to write it 'the old fashioned way'-pen to paper. Nathan and I were scouring the office stores the other day for the computer his friend is building him and I bitched and moaned about how neither staples nor officemax had a single fountain pen. the next day nathan spent 2 hours in the caves and reemerged with a cross fountain pen and a bottle of ink. At what point did he buy a fountain pen? Whatever...I thought that was really sweet :)

Other than my father in law I guess shit is going pretty well. I'm kind of in a funk though. I dunno....I'm at a very depressing part in the second twilight book and the shit I'm writting is sort of depressing right now too so I'm going to say that it's that.

Oh yeah...and I'm starting an interminably hard extemporaneous sweater, double breasted, in seed stitch, with applied icord trim. (gotta through in some slang for all my knittas)

That's all. Sorry I haven't been keeping up with lj at all recently. I'm this same name on twitter if anybody has that.

so I had to buy a new rice cooker today.

I know lots of people are like....rice cooker? have you not heard of a pot? Why yes I have...but I am too poor of a cook to make rice properly in a pot without standing right flippin over it the entire time. Do I seem like the kind of person that sits in the kitchen dilligently supervising their food? Hell no! I like to walk away and come back 10 minutes too late and find it perfectly cooked....ala rice cooker! Assuming you can do the prep right (which is basically measuring) it's pretty hard to fuck up using a rice cooker. The worst mistake I have ever made is not turning plugging it in and comming back half an hour later to cold water and hard rice. No big deal...just ate a half an hour later (after I plugged in the rice cooker)

coincidently this is why I am currently sans rice cooker. I used to always leave the cord plugged into the outlet and I'd just plug it into the unit when I wanted to use it (there was no on off on the rice cooker...it was either ON or it was unplugged) When we redid the kitchen though we unplugged it and somehow the plug and the cooker did not end up in the same place. It's been MONTHS now and still the cord has not turned up. Kudos to Nathan who really looked for it but to no avail. After dealing with crappy pot rice I finally caved and bought a new rice cooker.

here in lies the actual "problem" of this entry. My old rice cooker was a zojirushi. My mom found it in the stock room at williams sonoma one year (there stock room was so awful things would just get lost back there!) doing inventory and it was at least 5 yrs old....the current list price was like 10 bucks so with discount it was 6. She called me and asked me if I wanted to use my money to buy it (I really liked rice and was always begging her to make rice) and so I did! (I also have a 14$ delongi toaster oven) It was over 90% off and I can not express how nice this rice cooker is-was. It was 5 yrs old at the time and this is when I was like 11...so it is like 20 yrs old....still works fine...or would if I could plug it in. You could also use it to steam veggies...we lost the steamer part a long time ago but you *could* in theory have done it. You could also use it as a crock pot! I mean really 100% awesome machine. And here I was thinking well....that was a long time ago...they're probably not 100$ anymore...PSHAW....There are rice cookers, just regular home rice cookers not those huge industrial ones, that cost THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS!!!!!!! UGH! and here I wanted to spend like 40$. Ugh.

I ended up buying an 80$ Zojirushi that had 40 5star reviews on amazon and only a few four and under. I could've gotten a black n decker or something not made for the asian market for less...but I don't want to spend 40$ on something to have it fall apart after a year of regular use. I trust Zojurushi and it's lil elephant of glee. (fwomp!) I really liked that a couple of people had come back and updated their reviews to talk about how it was doing a year later. It was also 30% off so while it was fucking 80$ I felt like I was getting somewhat of a deal. I was floored though....300$ rice cooker? REALLY? I mean it sounded awesome, and I'm sure people who plop down 300$ for it probably love it (it had GREAT reviews...nothing below a 3) but shit...I don't like rice *that* much.

Still...I paid 10x more for a rice cooker than I did last time...I feel like such an old biddy....'when I was a girl rice cookers cost 6 dollars! red heart went on sale 2 for a dollar regularly!"

I admit...80% of my cooking is what I like to call 'fake cooking'...in the end you get food, and it's cooked, but no real skills went into the production of the food. Such items of fakery include, grilled cheese, mac n cheese, lipton sides, soup, spagetti (with jar sauce), ramen, rice, frozen veg meals, pillsbury breads et cetera.

But i have to admit....this is so delicious it might almost be real cooking!

While I was suffering post zombie bone insertion I made some pillsbury biscuits. (I admit the shit was on sale and I had the coupons from 3 circulars so I stocked up) I would put cottage cheese on one half and nutella on the other...a lil healthy with my delicious. I ate some kind of cottage cheese on bread for pretty much every meal while I was in no chomping land as my 'main course' and nutella on bread as my dessert. The busciuts with nutella were the BEST!

remembering my buddy heather and her nutella cupcakes I thought...what if I put the nutella in when I'm baking it? That way I wouldn't have to mess around with it when I'm ready to eat! SO I checked with her (to see if her nutella cupcakes had the nutella in them from the get go...didn't want to scortch the nutella) and then I went to town! I spred a lil bit inside each cressent and then smushed them up on the sides so there was no leaking. it pretty much worked...one leaked a little but it was on top and just crusted on the side....no goopy pan mess. I was going to fold them like wanton but I decided to live dangerously and do it this way. I baked them like normal otherwise.

and duh...they are delicious. I'm not sure if it counts as breakfast or dessert but I don't care....oh wait....who am I kidding it's 12:24...they're lunch!

so i had some cadaver bone grafted into my jaw.......yay.....hopefully this will improve my ability to have teeth in the future and not have my sinus be inside my mouth.

i do not recomend it. it was hog awful.

i do however like the recovery diet of ice cream and jello pudding pops. OH YEAH! I'll be paying for this for a while.

after spending an hour winding an incredibly tangled hank of sock yarn (with NO BREAKS) that I dyed over the weekend you'd think the ease of a knit picks sock blank would send me over the moon....and before winding it did!

now I confess....I dyed it twice. The first time I did pink, brown and aqua. the brown dissapeared leaving me with 1/3 blue, 1/4th pink, and the rest all groady....so i overdyed the fucker with burgundy and it came out gorgeous. the blue parts turned into a dark indigo, the pink into bright red and the gross into a deep burgundy. I was happy. during the dying process it didn't get tangled, was easy to turn over, a wiz to hang, everything was good. I didn't look at it in horor like I did the normal sock yarn hank.

then i started winding it. my colour was properly set and rich when it was in the blank but when I unwound it inside every loop was a white spot. Now, had I known this I would've dyed the whole thing aqua or some pastel colour...the white variance might've looked cool....but despite my efforts to like it I looked at the balls and realized I had made the worlds most patriotic yarn. Uh......no.

So I wound each ball into a hank and overdyed THAT purple and blue. Now it looks like I have 2 beautiful hanks of yarn and, happily, 2 different hanks. (400 yards of one thing is a lot for me because I don't need that much for 1 pair of socks) After 3 tries at dying I finally have a nice yarn but I don't think the hassel of dying it twice to get a good result (once knitted and once skeined) is really worth it. So if you want to use dark colours or don't want a white-mottled effect I would not reccomend the sock blanks. It was a good idea in theory......but in practice? not so much.

remind me to never do another knitting contest ala hat attack/sock wars ever, ever, EVER again.

teh dramaz. yuck.

jen hosted a yarn dying party for our snb...

look at our beautiful yarnz!

I have really ignored my lj. sorry lj. I don't really have anything to say other than:

"today I tied my shoe"

and it's a total lie! I didn't tie my shoe because I wore flipflops :/ oh well!

Well i didn't get it out the next day like I planned (I spent a good hour freaking out over twiter) so I didn't make it to the post by a whole 9 minutes :( but it looks pretty good I think and it's going out tomorrow!

I did not like this pattern though. I think I might've liked it in EITHER the weird rib OR the stripe pattern....but together it just makes the stripes look wonky and the rib pattern obscured. It's an impressionist hat....looks good from far away but upclose you lose the big picture. And while it fits fine if I made one for me I'd do another repeat because it's a haircrusher!

I ended up using only 1 skein of lite lopi in navy and 1 skein of handdyed yarn from notwosoflakes (on etsy) in a taupe-aqua melange. Unfortnunatly the aqua pooled badly but it's still kinda cool :) I know my target is a girl but i like that it is gender neutral.....

there I go again with the teenage boy fashion sense :P

a transformer blew today while i was playing wii. I knew it was a transformer because I heard it blow up but, considering the day, guess what conclusion I jumped to on my mat?

TERRORISTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

it was only several minutes later, after I managed to pick up a wireless signal on my computer, that I was convinced that terrorists were not attacking the outskirts of ohio.

while I was without power I took a candlight shower (the 2nd most enjoyable kind of shower there is) and took a nap with the dogs and then as soon as it came back on I went out to go run errands. I didn't want to leave the house until the power was back on in case it took a while and it flickered about on and off for a while. I know how much that would freak out the dogs and I didn't want to come home and find every single electronic device we own on and blasting.

when i got home it occured to me i had *hardly* logged in any internet time so I've sat here mindlessly surfing and hitting ravelry, facebook and twitter for the past 2 hrs. I feel like I'm in that episode of south park about not having the internet...i do appreciate it...but i also waste so much time doing nothing when I could be writing or knitting. I need to be more focused. maybe I need new glasses again?

also countdown...hdtv tomorrow!

my mom has this baby cockatiel. he's kinda cute now that his feathers have come in but I'm SO not a bird person...but this is seriously cute.

my mom's dogs like to eat the bird food he spits out of his cage. he knows this and was throwing it out for them. (he LOVES the dogs) so today my mom goes in there and he's handing the bird food pieces to her collie through the bars of his cage and the collie was gently taking them out of his beak.

omg...adorable....even I can say that. (NOT a bird person)

I have GOT to get a picture when I go there next time.

anyone who knows me remotely well knows I watch A LOT of tv. I turn it on when I wake up.....soemtimes it does not go off until bedtime. What can I say (other than I love tv?) but even if I am not watching it AT ALL I leave it on. I like the noise. If i go upstairs and listen to music I turn down the volume on the tv and keep it on....partially because when I turn off the tv the dogs think I am leaving and start being bad but partially because I just like the background noise. I do actually *watch* a lot though and I don't give a crap. I like tv.

Anyways back in 2004 we got dishnetwork and a dvr. We've been using the same dvr ever since and we use it EXTENSIVLY. Any show I watch, I tape it, watch something else for a few, and then watch it on dvr so I can skip the comercials. During the olympics we noticed that when it thought it was too full it was randomly deleating what was at the bottom of our tapped list.....it's not supposed to do that.....but we didn't really mind too much. It had also been burping a little when we watched programs but it wasn't that bad.

Then, thursday night, it died. I was about to watch tv and..........nothing. Weird error screen. I had to call up dishnetwork (OMG.... i hate their call center! luckily my question was complex enough to warrent a native english speaker) and while my reciever is SORT OF working now........I lost everything on my dvr. I lost all my olympics. I lost Michael Phelps :( I can sort of watch tv right now but the reciever unit is still crazy. it blitzes out on me and isn't taping properly. (ugh so I guess I have to watch the vmas live...booo!)

The upside is I've finally gotten off my ass and ordered hdtv. For as much tv as I watch, and considering I HAVE an hdtv you'd think I would've done this sooner but I didn't. I *tried* before the olympics but they couldn't get me an install date until after opening ceremonies and I didn't want to lose our recordings on the dvr (nathan was on nights during the 1st week so it would've meant he didn't get to see it at all :( ) in hindsight I should've....or I should've done it last year when I bought a big tv so I could've seen the olympics in true hd but whatever.

I will have it installed intime for the season premier of saturday night live. If you're thinking to yourself, self, I didn't think megi liked snl that much, you're right. I like it....but not so much that I normally would anticipate the premier like I have been doing for the past few weeks. Just google it. You'll see why I'm dripping with anticipation. it will sit on our new dvr list for years to come ;)

good idea: bringing your computer upstairs and spending an surfing the internet in bed so that when you are ready for bed you don't have to then take another half hour getting the dogs ready for bed...just close the computer and sleep.

even better idea: bringing your computer upstairs and spending an hour surfing the internet for Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte pictures, starting a thread in ravelry chock FULL of them...so that when you are ready for bed you don't have to then take another half hour getting the dogs ready for bed...just close the computer and sleep....dreaming that somehow you went to the olympics and were hanging out with the aforementioned gentlemen going skinny dipping and other various and sundry activities of vaguely sports related mayhem at the olympic village. BEST. DREAM. EVER.

i have been whipping these fuckers out lately. I don't know exactly how much yarn it takes but I know it is DEFINITELY under 50 yards and that is a VERY generous estimation. like a plum sized ball of yarn will do you fine. The beauty of this pattern is there is NO finishing! no weaving in ends!

Materials
worsted weight or sock yarn doubled over
size 8 circs

Cast on 60 sts with long tail cast on. Leave aprox 3 meters of tail. (you'll need this!)
rows 1-3 k1, p1 (seed stitch)
rows 4-8 even knit
rows 5-9 odd purl
rows 10-13 k1, p1 (seed sttich)
row 14 cast off...do not break yarn!

side a
pick up the stitches along the vertical rows (14 sts)
row 1 k1, p1
row 2 k2tog, p2tog
row 3 knit the knits and purl the purls
row 4 k2tog, p2tog
row 5 knit the knits and purl the purls
row 6 k2tog, p20g
row 7 p2tog...do not break yarn!
with the tail and the last loop on the needle chain 74 slipping last stitch through. make a small knot beneath last stitch and cut yarn close to the knot.

side b
repeat side a only use the long tail you had left over to work with.

finished dimensions should be about 15" long (not including tails) and 2" wide.

hey guys my second fave teeshirt store threadless is having a big sale with all tees 12-9$! Why not take a look via this linky here....http://www.threadless.com/?streetteam=aqueoustransmegan

if you buy from there i get street team points ;)

my first fave teeshirt store sharingmachine is back up and running! check it out! I got the angry kitty teeshirt, the gang sines, and another i hate voting teeshirt (my mom's collie ripped my first one :P) totally cute! sharingmachine.com

that is all....helping promote clothing above the waist for all.

CLIPZ! clipz...that's my inside joke...and the spin off joke of clipz is tapez. yes, I have been watching the olympics nonstop.

ayways speaking of sports....


I JUST GOT MY FIGURE SKATING TICKETS!!!!!!!!! I will be at the nationals cheering on all my faves in the finals. Hopefully, seriously, hopefully I will no jinx everyone I like. It will be a sad sad year if Johnny Weir, Kimmy Miesner, and Belbin all top the podium and I had to witness it....live! I'll pop an artery or something!

Yes, I will be knitting there. God....I will be there TWELVE HOURS one day. HELLO! what else could I possibly do during that time?