little bit of crazy leaking out

I have a victim!!  I heard back from my victim twice removed last night and I will be shipping out the socks today, as soon as they are dry.  With all the whoha I decided to go ahead and wet block them, so they are drying right now but as soon as they are dry I am popping them into the mail!

I have finished the Socks of Doom, actually I finished them last night. 

pattern: International Sock of Doom
yarn: Regia 6ply Crazy Colors
needles: Clover Bamboo US5
cast on: September 23rd  cast off: September 27th 

I should be thrilled, but I have no one to send them to.   I contacted my victim and, oh, yeah, sorry, I dropped out.  I’m glad I hadn’t just sent them off without contacting her.

Ok, I contaced her victim and received an odd reply indicating that she hadn’t received the information and that was why she had e-mailed me the first time.  Huh?  I replied that I didn’t think I was who she thought I was and explained the whole thing (again).  I explained about the trouble YM had with Hurricane Gordon and how all the info was posted at YM’s blog.  Later I found her victim info and e-mailed her again.  No reply, to either e-mail.  Hmmm.  Tonight I e-mailed again letting her know I was going to assume (yes, I know the saying) she was not interested in playing Sock Wars and I would go ahead and contact her victim, and I did.  Now, I just get to wait for my victim’s victim’s victim to reply.  Maybe I’ll be able to send out the socks tomorrow, or Saturday. 

My assassin has e-mailed me to let me know that my death is already in the post.  Luckily, they have to come all the way from the UK, so I might have a chance to mail mine out before being neutralized.

Oh. My. Goodness.  If you haven’t already seen this, you must, now!

The Llama Song

Thank you, Lorinda!

I was over at Wrap and Turn on my daily blog crawl, she mentioned she has enough sock yarn to knit 17 pairs of socks.  That got me to wondering how much sock yarn I have lurking in my stash.  I know it’s more than 17 pairs, but really, how out of control has my stash gotten?  If I were to knit up all of my sock yarn during Socktoberfest how many socks would I have to knit each day?  One and a half?  Five?

I think this one is in need of a contest.  

How many socks would I have to knit each day during
Socktoberfest to use up all of my sock yarn stash?

Yes, this involves math.  The closest without going over and I’ll send you . . . umm . . . gee . . . I don’t know . . . SOCK YARN!

Post your guess in the comments by midnight (pacific time) September 30th and  I will announce the winner at noon on October 1st.

There is so much going on in the blogsphere.

Sock Wars:  I have my target, I have my weapon and I know who is hunting me.  I have some built in lag time (time in the mail) as my assasin is in the UK, but my target is in Australia, so she has some lag time too.  I have finished the first sock without too much trouble, I only had to rip the heel and partial gusset a few times.  I know, I need to learn to read.  Can you believe some people have already put their socks in the mail, the pattern was released on Friday.  There has been one reported kill, those socks were handed off in person yesterday. 

Soctoberfest is just around the corner.  I am so excited about this one, it was so much fun last year.  I have several pairs of socks I need to knit up for the Holiday Knitting ‘06 and will try to complete them in October.

 

For me these two go together.  Dulaan Project 2007 has been officially kicked off and I will be doing much EZ knitting for Dulaan.  I was lucky(?) enough to be able to attend the Yarn Giveaway at Ryan’s and I have plenty of super bulky yarn to knit into very warm Tomten Jackets and hats.  I was impressed with the fact that the hostesses of Zimmermania! actually contacted Meg Swansen for permisson to hold the KAL, how classy is that.

I received three EZ books for my b’day last week, very cool!  I am all set for Zimmermania! now.

On the knitting front, Quinn has been set aside while I finish the Socks of Doom for Sock Wars. I am almost done with Quinn, just have a couple of rows left on the body, then on to the 16′ of 2 stitch i-cord. Sixteen feet!

I guess the third time is the charm!  The first was ripped; the second, the one with the three needle bind off, was turned into a headband; but the third is just like Mary Poppins: “Practically perfect in every way.”  OK, maybe that is an exageration, but I am pleased as punch!  I grafted the band together, in pattern even!  Thanks to those of you who told me not to give up.

I know I said I was going to leave it alone, but it was laughing at me.  Taunting me.  Thumbing it’s nose at me.  Flipping me a giant bird.  So Saturday night I cast-on again using the instructions at knithelp.com for an invisible cast-on done over the cable of a circular needle, and finished it up on Sunday while watching the pilots of Buffy and Dawson’s Creek (shut up, don’t judge).  That cast-on made all the difference.

I have been doing a bit of thinking about the Holiday Knitting.

I’m making Evelyn Clark’s Swallowtail Shawl from IK as part of the Holiday Knitting.  I need to make two shawls and I am not sure what pattern to use for the other one.  Swallowtail is a smaller shawl/scarf and I want the other one to be about the same size, but a little more comples than, say, Lace Leaf or Flower Basket.  The two patterns I am thinking of shrinking are Icarus or . . .

Lotus Blossom (with a little photo tweeking)
 

What do you think?  Any other ideas?  Please, I have been looking all over but I just haven’t been drawn in like I was with Swallow Tail.

By the way, have I told you how much I HATE spiders?  It is more than hateing them it is a full fledged phobia.  *sigh*  In spite of my phobia, I realize that spider are good things in the whole ‘circle of life’ so I try and keep my spider Karma in a good place.  I don’t kill them, I make Hubby catch them and take them outside. 

Actually, I don’t mind them outside, as long as I don’t actually walk thru a web or get one on me, that would be a whole ‘nother thing entirely.  It would involve screaming and running and crying and possibily removing clothing if I thought it had gotten into my clothes.  Not pretty.

Ok, back to the point.  I found this in my house yesterday.

Hubby caught it and took it to the guys at the bug lab (at the zoo) on his way to work and they identified it as a False Black Widow.  Which is better than the Brown Widow that it looked like . . . yuck yuck yuck!  It is now living out it’s life at the zoo, in the shrubs outside the bug lab. I won’t be going to visit.

Apparently, I am to stupid to be allowed to knit.  I am attempting to knit up Quinn; a beautiful cabled bag with wonderfully written directions, which I am unable to read.  Quinn starts out by knitting a top band then picking up stitches around and knitting down.  I have now knit the top band twice and have to rip it and knit it again, because of my own stupidity.  *sigh*

For now I am putting Quinn aside and will pick it up again later.  I need to work on something else for a while to prove that I am actually able to read directions and finish a project.  Socks, maybe I’ll work on some socks.