Voilà!

The rubber mop is here! DH picked it up from the post office yesterday afternoon. I tried it out when I got home in the evening, and...it works.

Now, it's not like you can just glide this thing nonchalantly over your carpet and the work is done. You have to put some effort into it, and go over the same spot a few times if it's a problem area, but...it WORKS. It picks up hair, fluffs up carpet pile and gets the freakin' job done. I adore it. Apparently you can even mop with it - this weekend, I gotta try that.

Oh, and that off-the-cuff remark I made about being able to knit sweaters out of my own hair for all my friends? Um...apparently that was not as much of a joke as I thought it would be. Frightening, but true. For a few nanoseconds I actually contemplated posting pictures of the incredible amount of hair the broom was picking up, until Common Sense kicked in, slapped me around a few times and reminded me that such a thing would be unbelievably gross.

Basic Sweater for DD

Done!


I would love to show you how much yarn was leftover, but I can't because there honestly isn't any. Just a few cut-off ends. I couldn't believe it. I barely had enough to do the cast-off. I had to go back to the beginning of the cast-off and tighten the stitches all the way along to eke out more yarn for a few more stitches. And I still managed to run out about ten stitches before the end. Fortunately, my cast-on tail at the collar had been pretty long, so I used that to finish the cast-off. After I wove in all the rest of the ends, I had a few pieces of about 5" long, which I used up to fix the gaping holes at the bottoms of the armscyes. Thus...nothing left but little bits. Amazing.

Grey socks for bro

Yesterday morning I started in on the sizing fix for sock #2. It started out really well - I put the needles into the stitches on the row I wanted to cut back to, and, to make the cut, was even able to find a substitute for the scissors that I left at my parents' place - curses - on Monday night. (I used my Swiss Army Knife, which was the gift I chose for my five-year anniversary with my employer - scads better than the bookends which were also offered.) Unfortunately, this is when it all turned sour. I'd started unravelling the cut row when I realised I'd made the cut below the needles instead of above. More cursing. I had to take out the needles and re-insert them two rows down. Then, once the cut row was all unravelled and the toe was ready to re-knit, I had to knit an extra two rows before starting the toe decreases. Not a huge time-waster, and completely fixable, but still a pain in the ass (and a blow to my ego).

Anyway, the great news is that I finished the fix on my lunch break.


This project is now complete (insert chord sung by heavenly choir) and I will be notifying 200Sox. Hoo-freakin'-ray. This week my husband and my mother will somehow be meeting up and exchanging items - I will be getting my scissors back, and my mom will be taking home, among other things, my brother's socks.

I just have one question. See this?


This is a closeup shot of the toe decreases. The 'ridge' to the right, comprised of K2togs, is beautifully clean and straight. The ridge to the left, comprised of K2togtbls, is ridiculously wonky.

WHY DOES MY KNITTING DO THIS?!?

Seriously - it doesn't matter if I do my left-slanting decreases with K2togtbls, SSKs or Sl1/K1/PSSOs, they always create a horribly wonky line in stark contrast to the sleek beauty of my K2tog decreases.

Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong? Or maybe I'm doing nothing wrong and this is just part of the physics of knitting?

Anyone?

Bueller?

Self-patterning socks for DD

Cast on for these while watching TV last night. Still working on the toe. I'm using the yarn left over from my self-patterning socks, and unfortunately I have no idea if there will be enough for a pair for DD. But hey, you never know until you try, right?