• On Life and Love

    First Ever Sock (and Other Yarning)

    Having already made Gregory a blanket, my next task was to craft up some house socks for him. His current pair were worn to holeyness and ready to be replaced. I dread the idea of working on super-fiddly projects, so I opted to go for a pair of crocheted socks using worsted weight yarn. Cotton, in my case, because acrylic on your feet would be for the birds. The main sock is black, and the heel is brown, despite Greg’s worrying singing of “Black Socks“. Plus, cotton crochets quite beautifully–no fuzz means the pattern shows very well. The heel was disturbingly confusing to me, quite possibly because I had a…

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    Project Complete: Bir’day Blanket!

    In a desperate crush this weekend, I finished Greg’s blanket. It wasn’t that I was four months late finishing it, it was that I was so. tired. of basketweave. If I had to do one more damn repeat, I was probably going to put the thing on hiatus, silly as that would have been. The finished product is long enough for Greg to stretch out and pretend to sleep under: Unfortunately, I have some of the eggplant yarn left. Anyone need a dice bag? If I can find a good contrasting color in my stash, I’ll probably do at least one of these. I spend a half hour or so…

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    Relearning to Bind Off

    My beautiful scarf is done! Way back on my bir’day, Scott bought me some fancypants yarn that I started working into a wavy scarf. Seven months, 5.5 feet of unstretched scarf (and most of a blanket and two dice bags…) later, I have a scarf, currently blocked out on my roommate’s floor. Hey, he wasn’t there at the time. Not my fault he came home that night after I went to bed. I’m not keeping the scarf–it’s going to my much more colorful sister–but I’m really proud (and glad!) it’s done. Aside from the little dice bags to break up these longer projects, this is my first sizable finish since…

  • On Life and Love

    Happy Bir’day to Me!

    Saturday was my bir’day! I’m a ripe young mumble-something years old, and I don’t feel like I’m getting old–I feel like I’m running out of time. Advertising that I didn’t want gifts (hello, getting rid of stuff) meant that the gifts I did get were thoughtful and amazing. A set of writing books covering memoirs, grants, motivation, and fiction–writing techniques. A shorthand manual. Weber and Neal Stephenson books. Amazing and creative fancy-pants yarn (color 12). I picked up yarn for a new project myself on Saturday–an afghan to be finished by Feb 13 and begun after I finish my current afghan. Greg, being Greg, picked a pretty, soft eggplant-colored yarn…

  • On Life and Love

    Crocheting and Knitting: Having the MIPS

    Um, that’s more this kind of MIPS, not that. I haven’t been a heavy crocheter since shortly after I left teaching in early 2008, but way back then, I started a blanket. It’s a gorgeous design, and I picked the colors based on the decor of a friend’s house. I don’t keep up with him anymore–and he’s married, so no telling what his house is like these days–but I still love the blanket. It’s wide: wider than 6 feet, which makes doing each row a painfully long endeavor. My favorite times to crochet (and knit, whatever) are when I’m watching television or on long car rides. Unfortunately (or fortunately), I’ve…