I am so angry!

My Diagon Alley Rainbow socks fulled. They fulled alot. From a Large Woman's size to a Medium Child's size.

Crystal Palace's Mini Mochi Sock Yarn Fulls!!!!! Oh, it's marketed as superwash merino but it isn't. It fulled. Alot. I'm so upset. I loved those socks and was counting the days till it cooled down enough I could wear them. Now I can't get them on my feet.

Diagon Alley Rainbows

Pattern: If You Know Where to Go
Yarn: Crystal Palace Mini Mochi, Color 101, 2 skeins
Needles: US2
Modifications: Dawn Brocco's Afterthought heel and Round Toe used so the color patterning wouldn't be disrupted
The yarn was a bit splitty and I had to cut and fix the color repetitions due to a knot in one skein
Ravelry

BSJ#3 is Done!

Teddy and I would like to present BSJ#3!Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket
Yarn: 4 balls (360 yards, 200 g) Crystal Palace Bamboozle
Needles: US 5
I cord BO around front and bottom. Shoulder seam is crocheted slip st. EZ's decreases, YO used for increases.
Although Bamboozle is not particularly fun to knit with, very splitty, it is soft and washes up nicely into a thicker fabric. Although considered to be a WW and suggesting US8 needles, I find the 5's make a very nice firm fabric that still is drapey enough to be attractive. It's still a good point to know that Crystal Palace's Panda Cotton, is the same as Bamboozle but is much less expensive and is sold in bigger balls.

A long neglected project was resurrected after finishing up the BSJ--Diagon Alley Rainbows! I had finished the first one back in May, but I really don't like making socks with patterns in them, even though I keep trying to enjoy it. So, they got slid into the "I'm pretending they don't exist" pile. However, in honor of the new Harry Potter movie we are going to see today, I decided to bite the bullet and finish them. I made a bit of progress yesterday...finished the leg, put in the waste yarn for the afterthought heel and got about an inch done of the foot. To be perfectly honest, I may only do half the foot in pattern (it'll be covered up by my shoes, so who really cares?) so I can make them into FOs!Pattern: If You Know Where to Go
Yarn: Crystal Palace Mini Mochi
Needles: US2
Modifications: Afterthought heel so the color patterning of the yarn won't be interrupted. Interesting thing about the dyeing of the yarn, the color patterning isn't consistent throughout the skein. I assumed the same color pattern would repeat, it doesn't so even if matching socks were the desired outcome, it's not gonna happen...not that I think matching socks are a necessity!

Speaking of Harry Potter, it looks we got the Vatican's Seal of Approval!

Diagon Alley Rainbows

Pattern: If You Know Where to Go modified for an afterthought heel so as to not disrubt the wonderful color
Yarn: Crystal Place Mini Mochi, Colorway 101 Not a yarn for a brand new knitter. Single ply, splitty and not necessarily evenly spun. I would hesitate to say "thick and thin", but it does have it's thicker moments.

Tomorrow is Lost Sock Memorial Day!

Had an appointment with the nutritionist yesterday. She reviewed my diet, exercise plan, the whole shebang. Felt that I was doing fantastically, and really had no suggestions except to keep on keeping on. It was good news! She did say I could add more fats to my diet and decrease the protein. That is a nice addition. I had an ounce of cheddar cheese last night....the first since mid February! Yum! If anyone is interested in the secret of my success in loosing 30 lbs in a little less than 3 months, it's religious use of the Wii Fit (at least an hour of aerobic exercise a day), a diet of between 1200-1400 calories broken down to around 35-55% carbs, 20-25% proteins, and 20-30% fats, 80 ounces of water a day and LiveStrong.com. I can't say enough good things about LiveStrong. It's an easy way to keep track of what you want to eat and what you've eaten every day, helping to keep things on an even keel. Track exercise, too, to get a complete picture of how you're doing.

Also saw the eye doctor yesterday. I'd had an incident last week with one of my eyes seeing a ring of distortion in my vision for a few minutes. Kinda sounded like the symptoms of a detached retina to me, but the doctor said it was an "Ocular Migraine." Nothing to worry about and because I didn't have a possible accompanying headache, no big deal. So, it was a good day, all in all!

Socks and More Socks

The Confetti Socks Redux are finished, washed and blocked. Two strands of sock yarn, one white, one hand dyed. Nice warm thick socks, great for Crocks or Burkes. No particular pattern, just a vanilla sock with some YOs in the legs.These are a pair of socks I've been waiting for quite awhile to CO. The Yarn is Crystal Palace's Mini Mochi, colorway 101. It's a single ply sock yarn (merino and nylon). The dyeing process is what makes it so pretty. The pattern is Dreams in Fiber's If You Know Where to Go. For those that are Harry Potter aficionados, you'll know that refers to where the entrance to the Wizarding World's best shopping spot, Diagon Alley is. As the pattern author says: Diagon Alley can be described as a twisted cobbled street located somewhere in the middle of London. It is also the place to go if a Witch or a Wizard needs to get a little shopping done. The only problem is, no one is able to get there unless “yeh know where to go”, as Hagrid so elegantly states in J.K. Rowling’s book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Inspired by the brick wall entrance found in the back of the Leaky Cauldron, and the endless maze of cobblestone alleys and brick buildings, this textured pattern develops as one knits and is also rather hidden (especially in this particular colorway) to those who do not know that it is there.

Although this stitch pattern is more futzy and contains way to many purls than I generally commit myself to, it's very pretty. I think I can survive it!

I want to share an internet delight I've recently found: Pandora Radio. I've so enjoyed setting up my commercial free radio stations and listening to whatever kind of music strikes my fancy, including some that are impossible to find on CD, such as Hooked on Classics and Hooked on Swing. My friend, Joansie, much prefers Slacker Radio. Check them both out and start enjoying some good music while you're surfing!

My daughter gave me her Pocket PC. It's neat! I can write down, say a stitch pattern, and take it with me in my knitting. Once I pick up some memory, I can download the pattern as a Word document and take it with. It also has internet capability, but have no idea what I need to do to get it working. It's a discontinued 2002 model and I have no documentation, so it'll be a job finding out what I can and can't do with it.

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Check out Helen! You go, Girlfriend!

The USPS...is it really 2 days?