I got the most exquisite purple 8gb ipod nano for Christmas (complete with a custom inscription from dear mom)! Between loading hours of songs to it, I decided to whip up an ipod cozy for it to keep it looking new forever, using a bit of leftover sock yarn.


( More pics & pattern. )

Now that Christmas is over and all my knit gifts have been delivered to their recipients, I can finally post my other recent projects!

Hot magenta houglass socks for the snister:


Manly brown & blue socks for Dad:




Lace beaded scarf for willowfinn:



(This scarf is so pretty, I am definitely going to make another one for me!)

Hope everyone had as lovely a holiday as I did with my family!

I finished Chris's sweater last night, despite having the majority of my free time completely consumed during the month of October. I think it's my best sweater yet, and is a real milestone--I've only been promising Chris a sweater for the entire 7½ years we've been together!

Isn't he handsome?


( More pictures )

Well, no sense in wasting time... I'm off to start my next project!

Finally have the final pictures of my sock project that I've been promising. Completely raw and unedited-for-prettiness pictures, since in a couple minutes I have to get ready for my first day of volunteering at the Haunted Forest, building and painting sets and such. As long as they don't ask me to operate any power tools, I should be all set.

( Behold my craftiness! )
Have you ever tried to take a decent picture of your own feet before? It's pretty darn awkward.

Anyhoo, Chris's sweater is coming right along... knitting miles of straight stockinette stitch is kind of boring as hell, but on big #8 needles it's super fast, and I'm already about 1/3 of the way done after only working on it a few days. Hopefully, Chris will still be "surprised" when it's all finished. I keep telling him I'm working on a really big test swatch.

I am 26 years old today. How the heck did that happen? Wasn't I just in middle school a few minutes ago?

The first 13" of the back of Chris's sweater are finished. A final picture of the socks is coming soon... I have yet to have the time in the morning when my feet are freshly washed to block the suckers! If you have no idea what I am talking about, you are right to be confused.

Who else watched McCain get pwned last night?!

/off to the kitchen for more birthday wine...

Wednesday night I got to see a FREE Margaret Cho show at Higher Ground! Once again, the baby_snister is fully responsible for all coolness in my life. She got two tickets by showing up to the box office with a printed copy of her Myspace profile. We were accompanied by her friend Steven, who I've only met a few times before, but love already, and we just had an absolutely fabulous time.

I can honestly say without hyperbole I have never laughed so hard in my entire life. I don't think a single sentence that came out of Cho's mouth would have been suitable for television broadcast... or anything else, for that matter. She is the raunchiest, most fucked up stand up comic I have ever heard--and I got to sit right in the front row! AWESOME!!

( Did I take pictures? Well, duh! )

In other news:

• I'll be seeing yet another comedy show at the same nightspot this Saturday, where Paul F. Tompkins of Mr. Show and Tenacious D fame is doing two live performances.
  
  
• My other sock is nearly finished; will post pics of the completely product shortly. I have a great big shipment of delicious yarn due to arrive in the mail any day now, which should keep me all set for projects right up through Christmas.
  
  
• No official confirmation yet, but I applied to be a volunteer in this year's Haunted Forest! Oh I hope I get to spend October jumping out of bushes and frightening small children; it's what I do best! EDIT: I have been cast as "Madame Zellah," a murderous, fortune telling crone whose magic is powered by the capturing of INNOCENT HUMAN SOULS!

So far this autumn is shaping up to be pretty fantastic! Good times!!

It's definitely fall in Vermont--the leaves are just barely beginning to turn, and that cool crispiness has returned to the air. Like clockwork, two things happen to me at this time of year: I start smoking again, and I have an uncontrollable urge to get wrapped up to my elbows in yarn for several hours at a time.

I'm kicking off this year's autumn knitting obsession with a fun toe-up lace sock pattern called Interlocking Leaves--isn't that apropos? I love making socks.

( Progress pics )

I'm pretty sure I know who I'll give these to. Maybe if I can get my shit together I can actually make Christmas presents for people, like, before the week of Christmas!

One more pic, because it is cute:

The baby_snister getting a snuggle on with my cat. She's going to take me clubbing with her on Halloween; maybe then I can stop being such an uncool loser all the time!