Westward ho!

Just wanted to update the blog before I head off to The Land of No Internets, a.k.a. the in-laws' house. Although, since The Boyfriend and I aren't married, the "law" part of that phrase isn't quite accurate. In any case, there will be no internet access for me for four whole days. Eeep!

Last night, I received my final package from my Knitty Secret Pal. It was really the 2nd and 3rd packages combined. My pal was the wonderful UrbanPagan! She sent me four balls of KnitPicks sock yarn in two beautiful colorways, a lovely hank of handspun and hand-dyed yarn from a local fair, and some lovely beaded stitch markers. I didn't get a chance to take pictures last night, and I'll probably forget until much later, but everything was gorgeous! I definitely needed more stitch markers, since I'm always making beaded markers for other people instead of myself! And I can't wait to put that yarn to good use. Thanks so much!

In other news, I finished up the socks for my mother. I even managed to get the striping pretty accurate on the second one. I won't bother with a picture of the completed pair--just scroll down for the pic of the first sock and cross your eyes so that the image doubles. ;)

At long last, I finished the straight rows for Clapotis. I thought they'd never end! So, I'm finally on the decreases, and the final ball of yarn arrived last week, so I'm ready to finish. I'm already thinking of another one that will match better when I'm wearing brownish colors. And, since I didn't want to order just one skein of yarn from handpaintedyarn.com, I went ahead and ordered some of their Boutone Pure Wool in the Picnic colorway. I'm planning on making Ella with it. I think I may be wrap/shawl crazy at the moment. Hrm.

The big question of the day is...what knitting should I bring with me to The Land of No Internets? Mom's socks are finished, Clapotis isn't all that portable, and I can't work on the cigar gloves in front of the intended recipients. I'm thinking of trying to make a lace scarf for my mom, so that's one option. Or, I could always make some more socks. Must consult the stash tonight whilst packing. Maybe I'll just fiddle with some leftover sock yarn and try to make up some patterns for the Blythe girls. They need some more winter clothes, methinks.

Finally, because I know you've all been fretting about this, I still have not been able to play City of Villains. Sniffle. It looks like I need to replace the graphics card on the computer, as it must have fried when the power supply went haywire. That will be first on the list of things to do when I return from The Land of No Internets. Or maybe second, behind setting up the tree. I love setting up the tree...

Quick update.

Since I have approximately 10 minutes before I have to leave work, I decided to dedicate that time to my sadly neglected blog. Life's been crazy, with the work and the home PC dying. Yes, my home computer's power supply went kaput, and we only just got the new one installed last night. Of course, I was hoping to log some time playing City of Villains, which arrived during the computer-free weeks. Much to my horror, the game decided that it didn't like something about my graphics card. Downloaded latest drivers...still no good. So tonight I shall try fighting with it again. Maybe I can coax a few minutes of playing time out of the thing. Maybe I'll just start pounding on the desk again. I dunno.

In knitting news, it was nice and sunny last weekend, so I took some knitting pictures in the natural light.

Here, we have one of the socks intended for my mom:


I used a chevron toe-up pattern in KnitPicks Simple Stripes, Vineyard colorway. I'm up to the cuff on the second one, so hopefully I'll finish that up this weekend.

And here is a half-finished Clapotis:


And a close-up of the dropped stitches:


The yarn is from handpaintedyarn.com. It's their Colonia 140 in the Laguna colorway. It's going to be thick and warm, and won't be as drapey as some of the Clapotis I've seen, but that's okay. I'm planning to make another one in a lighter yarn anyhow.