FO: Socks, 1 year in the making!

I can finally say that I have knit a pair of socks...

and I ain't too proud to show off my mistakes.

I'd actually started these socks a whole year ago. The yarn, Cascade Fixation, came in my first ever swap on the Knittyboard. BabblingStacey was my wonderful upstream, and when she learned that I was interested in knitting socks she sent me everything I needed to make some: lots of sock yarn, Knitpicks Memories plus the Fixation, some size 3 DPNs, and the pattern for Turtlegirl's Ankle Socks.

So I'd started them, but then school started up again, and I wanted to knit other things so the socks stayed in my basket for quite some time. I was determined to finish them, so I took up the project again in June. If you go back a few posts you'll see the mess I made of decreasing the first one, and if you look at the above picture closely you'll see that the second one is a tad shorter. Also, they're a bit loose, but I think they look kinda nice.

The main thing about my first sock experience is that it hasn't scared me off of knitting socks. In fact, I'm set to start my second pair next week as a Ravelympics event. I'll be using Silver's Sock Class pattern with yarn I got at a Bobmas Eve party.

Oh, and my Therapi for Hat Attack 2 came today! The yarn feels yummy, now I get to have fun swatching! Hopefully it won't take me too long to get gauge...

I should be doing homework...

...but if I don't knock out this blog post I won't ever get it out, and I have something really cute to show!

The pattern is Saartje's Booties, and I used up some Socks that Rock that was leftover from a Chevron Scarf I knit earlier this year. They're for my sister's neighbor, who is due next week. I made the larger size so I think it will be a while before they'll actually fit the baby.

I got one of my swap packages over the weekend, this one is from the Ravelry Book Club Swap.

I really liked the theme of this swap, you had to include a book and a book-related item. My swap partner got me a copy of Markus Zusak's The Book Thief, plus a really neat bookmark that I haven't tried out yet. She also got me some mint chocolates from Marshall Field's and a smashed penny from Chicago! I'm excited about that because I'll be going there for a conference next year.
So now I'm just waiting on my Knittyboard Summer Lovin' swap package, hopefully it'll come when I'm in the midst of my final projects so I'll have something to distract me...

First. Sock. Finished.

I can finally say that I've finished knitting a sock.
Whether I want to be proud of that statement is still the question.
It's done, but it's also horribly disfigured. Take a look:

My husband says it looks like it was made for someone with bound feet. If you look closely, you can see that the toe part is completely twisted, about 90 degrees from where it should lie. What happened is that I started decreasing for the toe with all my stitches distributed evenly on the needles. A lovely lady (Aunt Jean) over on the Knittyboard kindly informed me that I was supposed to have 1/2 of the total stitches on one needle for the instep, and the other half divided between the other 2 needles. I will surely remember that for next time! Meanwhile, it doesn't look that bad (to me) on my foot:

Beer Snobbery

It seems I have become somewhat of a beer snob.
It all started a couple of months ago when my husband took me to O'Briens's Pub, where the food is just okay but they have lots of beer on tap and even more in bottles. My husband has a coworker who is really into beer, she even brews her own and is great at helping you navigate the menu. I have to say that ever since we've started going there pretty regularly (almost every Friday) I've developed a tolerance I've never had before. It used to be one drink and I was out. Now, I can have two drinks and still carry on a coherent conversation.
I've found out that I like pale ales. Not IPAs so much, but the pale ales. My husband has recently delved into stouts and while I can tolerate a couple of sips, they're really not my thing. I've joined the Beer and Fiber group on Ravelry and have had a lot of fun reading about some really good beer. I missed the swap they had and I hope another one will be soon forthcoming.
Anyway, there was a mention in the group about beer blogs. Maybe it was intended for homebrewers, but I thought it might be a good thing (for me at least) to somehow catalog the beers I've had recently and enjoyed. That way I can come back and find out what I've had in the past. I'll start with Organic Wild Salmon Pale Ale from Fish Brewing in Olympia, WA.
I picked up a 6-pack of this at a local grocery store. Funny, we had it with that night's dinner, which happened to be salmon. I really like this beer. It starts off kind of sweet but has a smoky taste at the end. This past weekend was really hot and so I appreciated this beer. It reminded me a little bit of Dogfish Head Midas Touch, which was my go-to beer at O'Briens for a time. They've since run out but my husband's aforementioned friend has located some in a bottle at a really good liquor store near her house.

Schemes and Schemas

It's week 2 of Summer Session, and I thought it was going well until I saw this week's reading assignments:
4 chapters
6 articles
I know it's a matter of being organized, and last week I put my nose to the grindstone and got through everything but 2 articles, and now everything is starting to swim together because I'm learning about representation schemes in one class, and metadata schemas in the other. Schemes and Schemas, it's all relative, right?

Okay, an update

I hadn't realized it's been 2 weeks since I last posted...Summer Session started on Monday and according to one of my professors, it can be a grueling 10 weeks. He also goes on to say that his course should probably be taken by itself during a summer session. I'm taking 2 courses. Oh well, at least there are 2 other students I know who are in my boat. We'll either sink or swim together!
The first few days of class have gone well. I'm trying not to depend on work time to do my homework and so far so good. If I can get an assignment completed tonight (it's actually not due until next Thursday) then I can enjoy the weekend without having to think about school.
I only have one picture to show off; I've really been neglecting my Project 365 committment. We're in sort of a "Summer Camp" mode for now, I looked at the assignments and I should be able to do something with that. I do have this cute lil thing to show off: It's the Toasty Topper pattern from the Winter 2007 Knitty.Yes, it's rather an unusual thing to show off now that it's June, but I needed a quickle gift for a birthday party we were invited to with less than a week's notice. In keeping with Summer of the Stash regulations, I used some Paton's Shetland Chunky that was earmarked for a scarf last year.
Also in keeping with Summer of the Stash regulations, I bought some yarn but not for myself. I won't say more in case the Knittyheads might be going through all the blogs looking for SP clues, but I think I've completed all of my fiber purchases and now it's on to the other stuff!

Gas lines, oh my.

I know it's stupid, but psychologically I feel better for not having had to pay $4.00 a gallon for gas...yet. Yesterday at Costco, the price was still $3.99. So I joined my fellow Cosco-ites in line at the pump.

I'm too young to remember the gas lines of the 70s, but I will certainly remember this. I've never seen the Costco gas station this crowded...all to pay $3.99 a gallon. If there hadn't been people directing traffic, it would've been utter chaos. I'm glad the dude directed me into a lane where my gas tank was on the right side of the pump, since I can never pull the darn hose to the other side.
My husband thinks it was a waste of time to save a few cents, but what I neglected to tell him was that sitting in that line allowed me to do 5 rounds on my sock. I consider it time well spent.
Today is Wednesday, and I'd like to try and do WIP Wednesdays, if only to get me to blog more regularly. Now that I've joined the Summer of the Stash group on Ravelry, I should have something or things to show. Right now I'm working on the Gossamer Stars Scarf from the latest Interweave Knits. This is going to be for my very good friend and co-worker Aglae. I've completed one repeat of the chart so far: I really like the pattern. Like the description says, it's interesting enough not to be boring.