Iowa City’s Summer of the Arts

Iowa City’s Summer of the Arts

Plastic duck armada is heading for Britain after 15-year global voyage - Times Online

Plastic duck armada is heading for Britain after 15-year global voyage - Times Online

Thank you Emily!

Emily (AKA E to the M) of Say What? kindly swatched the reverse of the stitch pattern for the Cable Twist socks and shared it with me. I found her very-similar-to-mine Cable Twist sock on Ravelry and commented on hers. We both want to make the other sock twist the other way (ahhh...symmetry) and she figured it out today when she had some free time. Less thinking for Chelsea!!

As for my sock pals' pink Koigu Cable Twist socks, I am past the heel and about 2 more inches to go before I start the toe decreases. I will finish the other green one someday. I still have the Sidwinders, but I managed to add couple of stitches to the foot. I should probably figure out if I miscounted when I casted on before I start frogging. I hope that's the case so I can continue. It's such a quick knit that I almost wouldn't mind doing it all over. It would give me a chance to improve my increases and decreases.

I must make brownies tonight. It's cooler and I need to bake. I am also going to try a recipe from The Best 30-Minute Recipes I checked out from the library.

I am not a fan of summer weather in Iowa, except for the thunderstorms. I pretty much hate when it gets over 80 degrees and the humidity drives me crazy. I grew up in a house without air conditioning and I remember spending summers sitting on the couch in front of the fan trying to figure out the best position so the fewest parts of my body were touching anything. I have air conditioning now and I don't think I could stand a summer without it anymore. I feel like such a wimp.

Cooking during the summer can be frustrating unless a grill is handy. I hate turning on the oven, so I am not doing as much baking as I would like. I want to make some brownies as a thank you gift for my uncle, but I don't want to turn the oven on! Luckily it should be cooler tomorrow and I essentially have the night off, so I may make them then. I also would love to make a birthday cake for a friend, but I am not sure that is going to happen. Our kitchen is usually warmer than the rest of the place so spending a lot of time in there is not pleasant.

Hopefully it won't be too warm at tkd tonight. It's supposed to get less humid and slightly cooler this afternoon and hopefully the room we workout in will catch up to the outside by the time class starts.

I made progress on my Sockapalooza sock last night; I turned the heel. I discovered I a mistake in the Sidewinders and ripped back a few rows, so no progress on them. I am ready to start Act II though.

Oh, I never posted this pic of my practice sock.



or this one...



or this one...which was kinda hard to take



I must have been doing laundry at the time.

I was really tired all day yesterday, but when the time came for me to go to bed I was wide awake. That kinda ruined my plans to get up early and go for a run. Since I got to bed about an hour and a half later than I wanted and getting up about 45 minutes earlier would have 2.5 hours less sleep than I am used to, I decided to put off the run for later today or tomorrow morning. I have been so lazy this summer. i didn't get a gym pass because I knew I would be busy, which wouldn't make it worth spending the money and the only workouts I am getting are two hours of tkd a week. I would love to go to the kickboxing class at 4:30 on Wednesdays, but I don't usually leave work until after then.

As for sock progress, I finished Act II of the Sidewinders.



I made pretty much no progress on my pal's socks, so that is probably what I will work on tonight. My goal is to finish the leg and turn the heel.

This weekend wore me out. Friday night we played paddle hockey at tkd. Basically you use the paddles we normally kick and use them to hit a racquet ball between a couple of bags used as the goal posts. I am not sure why but my lower back muscles were incredible sore and tight after a little less than an hour of paddle hockey. On Saturday I could hardly move without it hurting. Driving for almost 5 hours on Saturday didn't help.

Saturday I planned to take my dad and grandpa to lunch for a belated Fathers' Day. Coincidentally, my aunt and uncle were purchasing a new car that happened to be in Ames where my dad and grandpa live. I received a call from my mom at 7:30am on Saturday asking if I was on the road yet because my aunt and uncle were just over an hour drive away from Ames! I had assumed they were going to be there around lunch time since they were driving from Wisconsin. I showered and was on the road 20 minutes later and arrived in Ames shortly after they did. I listened to a HP and the Half Blood Prince on the way so the 2+hour drive both ways wasn't too bad. I met my mom and cousins at Borders in Ames and we wandered around there and Target for about an hour. I took my dad and grandpa to lunch then we went back to my dad's to look at pictures from his trip to China. I re-started the Cable Twist socks while looking at the pictures, but of course, I made a mistake that required frogging most of what I had done.

Saturday night Amanda, Josh, Randal and I watched the UFC fight night and ate beer cheese dip and fruit pizza. I could have fallen asleep before it even started at 8:00. I brought the sock to knit to help me stay awake.

After frogging the Sidewinders a couple times, I finally finished Act I last night and started Act II this morning. At least it looks like it might fit on a foot now.


I am almost done with the cuff on the second attempt at my Sockapalooza socks, but I noticed a mistake a few rows back when I was on the bus this morning.

First Summer Sock

I have been told this will become a sock. I trust Nona and have seen evidence, but I am still a little unsure.



ETA: The yarn was kindly gifted to me by Liz and it's from here. The patter in Sidewinders by Nona .

I started this last night in honor of the start of Summer of Socks. I may restart my sockapalooza sock on larger needles so they may count towards my total!

I am considering a member ship to Audible.com. I enjoy listening to audio books when I am driving and when I am on the bus or eating lunch at work. I usually read a book during lunch, but sometimes that can get a little tricky. Lately I have been listening to HP while on the bus, eating lunch, and sometimes before I go to bed. I might try a few more audio books from the library before I go for it.

Socks!

Summer of Socks starts on Thursday, the summer solstice. I have two pairs of socks going right now, but they won't count towards my total for the summer, which means I should probably get ready to start more socks.

The first sock for my Sockapalooza pal is about 2/3 done. I have finished the gusset and am onto the foot. I think they will fit her well; at least I hope they do. I think after I finish this pair of socks, or maybe even on Thursday, I am going to start Sidewinders. I have made a pair of socks toe-up, a pair of baby socks, and am in the middle of some cuff-down socks. Obviously sideways socks are the next logical step.

Sunday was the Crazy Girl Yarn Shop sock club meeting I attended. I finally got to meet Liz, whose blog I found on Sockapalooza's pligg. We spent most of it talking about our many common interests and she gave me sock yarn. I will have to take pics so I can add them to my stash on Ravelry.

I am a little worried that it may be hard for me to go to the cabin this year. Josh was planning to join me at my family's cabin for a few days this summer, but I am not sure that is going to happen. With one of the tkd instructors leaving sometime this summer Josh and I are going to have to take over for him. This means we will both be teaching at the Nest on Monday and Thursday nights, but that also means if we both leave town at the same time there will only be one instructor left for each night at the Nest instead of the usual three per night. I would love if Josh could come to the cabin with me, but I also know that if there are no other instructors for the Nest he will stay to teach so I can go to our cabin. I guess if he stays here I will be able to stay longer than I would if he came with me, but I was really looking forward to some cabin time with him.

I am not a fan of these almost 90 degree days. I grew up without A/C, but I have turned into a wimp when it comes to summer heat since I got A/C. I think I may take my knitting and my HP Order of the Phoenix down to the pool this evening so I can get outside, but still stay cool. My new swim suit arrived yesterday and I intend to make the money I spent on it well worth it.

I started my Sockapalooza pal's sock yesterday and am a 3/4 done with the leg. The slight variations really make the cable stitches stand out. I am quite happy with how it is turning out. The Koigu is lovely to knit with. It's just a little springy and it doesn't split like the yarn for my practice sock does, so it's going a lot faster. Though the color isn't one I would wear a lot, it is still really pretty. The colors are rich, and the yarn has a nice sheen. I took pics, but haven't uploaded them yet.

I decided to stick with the Cable Twist socks instead of the Diagonal Cross-Rib because I like the Cable Twist socks cable pattern a little better and i now under stand how the heel flap works. I am adding an eye of partridge heel like Grumperina.

I may take my lunch outside today too!

Tagged!

I have been tagged by the Knitting Hawkeye to list 7 interesting things about me. I somehow missed she had tagged me. Oops!

Rules: if you've been tagged, you have to write 7 random facts about yourself (usually fun and interesting ones) on your blog, tag 7 others and write to the original tagger to read your posted facts on your blog.
p.s-- you need to post these rules on your blog as well, to let others know how to play the game.

1. I took dance lessons for 8 years and even helped teach a little bit. I think I was actually kinda good.

2. I have ridden RAGBRAI at least 6 times. It might be 7; I don't remember.

3. I received my black belt in tae kwon do when I was 11.

4. I regularly sneeze when I eat dark chocolate.

5. I love shoes and have over 50 pairs, mostly flip-flops.

6. I used to meticulously paint my nails. If I smudged it before it was dry or chipped it I would take it off and repaint. Many people thought my nails were fake.

7. I learned to crochet as a freshman in college and I taught myself to knit in October 2006 in a hotel room in Cincinnati. My mom had tried to teach me that summer, but it didn't work.

Practice Progresses (almost) Perfectly

My Sockapalooza practice sock is going well.

I believe this was taken after all the gusset decreases were completed. I am at the start of the decreases for the toe now. I would be farther if I could follow directions, which seems to be a problem for me. I forgot to increase my decrease rate after the first few rows so I had to frog back a few rows of the toe.

I am rather proud of the gusset. It was my first time picking up stitches for the gusset and it went pretty well. Only two tries were needed!

My decreases are a little sloppy, which I hope will even out with blocking.

It looks completely different off the foot.


Depending on how the toe looks, I think I am going to start my pal's sock when I am done with this one and do the second sock after I finish my pal's socks. I live in sandals over the summer, so it's not like I plan to start wearing them right away.

Yesterday I took pictures of all my nice yarn in the stash for Ravelry. I had a hard time getting the pictures to come out true to color and ended up playing with a few of them on Picnik, which I discovered through another blogger. Josh kept looking at me like I was nuts then finally asked what I was doing. He still thought I was nuts even after I explained.

food science?

Someday I should decide what I want to do with the rest of my life. I know I don't want to work as a research assistant forever. It's fine for now but not interesting enough to me to make a career out of it. I have thought about culinary school for quite awhile, but something, I don't know what, has always held me back. I think part of it is the fact that I have a degree in biology that I think should be put to use. A few days ago I stumbled upon an article from over a year ago about Culinology. I must say I am intrigued. It combines my science background with cooking and baking, two of my favorite hobbies.

There are programs in several schools and few are even somewhat close to where I live now(NE, MN, IL). I know I need to make a decision sometime. We already signed our lease for next year, so I have a little time to think and figure it all out. Josh doesn't know how to go about what he wants to do with his life, and I am just starting to figure it out for myself. I wish I was better at making decisions.

Third time's a charm???

I finished the leg of my Diagonal Cross-Rib socks last night. I centered the heel on the back of the leg and started the heel flap, then I realized I was short one stitch after a few rows. I frogged and started again. I leave myself a little time in the morning to do some knitting so I picked up the sock and knit a few rows. Then I realized I misread the directions and instead of sl 1, p to end I was doing sl 1, p 1 to end on WS rows. Oops! I frogged again and started for the third time, but after a few rows I realized I had dropped a stitch when I frogged. I wasn't really sure how to pick it up with slipped stitches present so I frogged again. I didn't get a chance to pick up the stitch and start again so I stuck a marker in the dropped stitch and went to work. I have only done short row heels so I am a little nervous about picking up stitches, which is why I am doing a practice sock. So far, my ability to knit this heel flap is not helping my confidence level.

Has anyone knit socks with Knit Picks Memories? Any thoughts or opinions on it? It is on sale right now and I like the colorways, so I bought a few skeins.

Ouch!

I have had knit in my left shoulder for the last couple of weeks and my chiro has been helping me get rid of it. I luckily had an appointment yesterday morning becuase I woke up extra stiff and couldn't turn my head very far to the left. I am better today, but I had trouble knitting for more than a few minutes last night because my left shoulder would start to ache. Luckily I could still play tennis and Zelda on my new Wii! Now my shoulders are stiff from my appointment and trying not to strain my neck too much more. Sometimes my body drives me crazy. It's a slow day at work and I just want to go home and knit!

A question for all you blogger savvy knitters out there:

I want to clean up my sidebar a bit my hiding links and my blogroll until they are clicked. Does anyone know how to create a hierarchy link list (like the blog archives)or something else that would accomplish what I want?

I have been invited

I received my invite to Ravelry today! I finally might be able to keep track of stuff. I can't wait to play with it!

Edited to add:

I played a little and added a few projects I had pics of on Flickr. Too much fun! I really didn't expect to get an invite so soon. Oh yeah, my username is chelseachip if you want to see what I am up to. I am glad I have a lot of waiting to do at work today!

Could this be the career for me?

I have been thinking about culinary school, but I don't want to let my biology degree go to waste. I think this may hold the answer, or at least a starting point, to what I want to do with my future. A food science degree is always an option as well, but I also want to be able to do some actual cooking.

a pattern even I can follow

As I mentioned yesterday I am essentially combining two patterns with the same stitch a pattern. Honestly the only change I am making to the Diagonal Cross-Rib socks is not doing a ribbed cuff but instead going right into the pattern stitch like the Cable Twist socks. I started a Cable Twist sock, but wasn't entirely happy with how I had knitted it. What I really like about the IK pattern is that the twist for the other sock goes the other way. I thought about trying to figure out how to do that on my second sock after reading about it on a fellow Sockapaloozer's blog, but didn't know how to go about it. Now I have a pattern that does that, written for sock yarn and with a heel I like better. Shiny!

I was afraid of modifying a pattern too much because I have knit so few socks. I am excited about knitting it. I just wish I wasn't the person doing the driving to Minnesota this weekend so I could get some knitting time in. I am picking up my 80 year old grandma and driving her to my cousin's graduation party in Minnesota. We will be meeting my mom and sis for lunch on the way so maybe I can convince my sister to drive and I can ride with my mom and knit a little! I am also going to miss my new Wii. Now we have Zelda and Paper Mario and remote and nunhuck controllers.