More Knitting

I made a commitment to blog more this year and I'm determined to do so.

My ongoing commitment to Sock Knitters Anonymous continues to lead me down the primrose path of sock knitting foolishness.

For the month of February, I planned to knit 4 socks (yes, 4...I know, insane me....).  More interestingly, I finished them, some in March, but I started in February and that's what counts! (more after the jump!)

Something new to like

I hate to clean.

There, I've told the entire world (not that anyone really reads my blog).

I absolutely despise cleaning.  As a child, I was given washing dishes and dusting as a punishment, thus kicking off a lifelong hatred for any kind of cleaning chore.  As an adult, I clean begrudgingly.

I stack and run the dishwasher.  Hand washing is done only when I've stared at the same plate in the sink for 3 days straight and I'm leaving on a week-long trip the next day.  Besides, I heard that the dishwasher uses less water than hand-washing.

My bed is made when I put new sheets on it.

Clean laundry is consistently piled in my bedroom chair.....Rarely does it make it to the closet....not that my closet has a lot of room for it anyway.

When I had carpet, I occasionally vacuumed.

I still consider mopping the fifth ring of hell, and it's only done when I stick to the kitchen floor.

I never dust.  No amount of money on earth can compel me. When I dust, I end up spreading the dust around by sneezing. Besides, no matter what, you have more dust the next day. Given that I am now the proud owner of laminate floors, this is a problem.

And now that I've given you this litany of things I hate about cleaning, why did I title this post "Something New to Like?"

Because I have found something new to like.  Meet the Swiffer Vac and the Swiffer Duster/Extender!

Don't ask me why, but I'll load a Swiffer Dry cloth onto the Vac and take it all around the house.  I have no problem putting a dry cloth on the duster and quickly swishing the coffee and side tables or tackling cobwebs in my house.

These two products are so simple and easy to use that I almost have fun with them.  My only problem with the Swiffer Vac is the 10 minute suction time on the Vac part.  That sucks, but then again, I don't need to run the Vac all the time. Just when I get something I can't pick up on the dry pad.

Of course, Swiffer isn't solving my messy kitchen problem (anyone have a solution for that?), but at least my floors are clean and most (wood) surfaces in my house are now dust-free.

PS.  The people who made Swiffer aren't paying me a dime for this post.  I just really really like the SwifferVac.

I want to stop now....

 I am not a fan of Cat Bordhi's sweet tomato heel.

Leyburn Socks with Sweet Tomato Heel

Perhaps it's just me, perhaps I've done something wrong, perhaps I simply chose too complicated a pattern to try this out on, but I have finally turned the heel of one of my Leyburn socks and the sock is so tight around the instep as to need me to tug it into place when I attempt to wear it.  I'm also not a fan of the bunching look created by executing the third set of short rows. Sigh.

Maybe I'm pushing myself too hard, but I'm just now binding off the first sock in this pair, which has put me behind in knitting the 4 socks I had planned this month.  I would like to get the Solid Socks Group Mystery Sock knit before the last clue come out.  I also need to get Ivy knit before the end of the month.  I reestablished my cast on day for the sock (tomorrow) and if I can get a decent amount of work done on the Mystery sock tonight, then I will get started on it tomorrow.

Productive

I think February is the month for me to be productive.


At work, I managed to wrap up a project that was continually delayed last year (not due to me....there was always a competing priority).  It only took a month, mostly due to the developer needing to fine-tune code.  Otherwise, I'm waiting on feedback from the end user.  Meanwhile, I'm up in Maine finishing another project, helping a school automate some of their processes.


On the knitting front, I have already finished one of the Sock Knitters' Anonymous socks.

Clover Socks in Cherry Tree Hill, Loden colorway

The Clover socks were a lot of fun to knit and they took no time! One week for the pair, which is probably the fastest I've ever finished a pair of socks.  Even better, I bound them off and immediately put them on my feet (since it was 18 degrees here in Portland, ME today),  I have a load of handknit socks to wash when I get home tomorrow and for some reason I'm not looking forward to it.

Solid Socks Mystery KAL

Meanwhile, while watching the Superbowl (Yay Giants!), I cast on for and finished the first clue of the Solid Socks Mystery KAL sock.  I was smugly reveling in this fact when I realized that I was using Jojoland Melody from my stash.

Leyburn Socks in Jojoland Melody

CRAP!!! I need to learn how to read the instructions better, because Jojoland Melody is definitely not a solid or semi-solid sock yarn.  So, after admiring the beauty of that bit of knitting, I frogged the cuffs and searched through the Ravelry queue for something else I could knit.  I happened on the Leyburn Socks.  These have been in my queue forever, so I cast on.  So far, I've finished one full repeat of the instep pattern and I can see that I'm going to need to break out the stitch counter for this pattern because it's so easy to miss those rounds of plain knitting.


So far, in 2012, I've finished 3 pairs of socks....I'm thinking that I just might challenge myself to finished the full dozen for the year, especially since I'm already making good progress (2 socks completed, 2 on the needles, 1 waiting to start).  I'm not counting the Escalator socks because they were begun last year.

Super Bowl Sunday

 And I'm sitting in JFK airport, so I'm sure you can guess the allegiance of most of the people around me.

I'm rooting for the Giants, mostly because that's who I rooted for in 2008.  I'm what you would call a "day of" fan; I make my decision of who I'm supporting the day of the game.  So in 2008, newly settled in Florida, bored out of my mind, and wanting to be able to keep up with the inevitable discussion at work the next day, I watched the Super Bowl.

I had absolutely no facts on either team.  I didn't know that the Patriots were coming into the Superbowl undefeated and were looking to set a record.  I didn't know that Plaxico Burress would later shoot his own dumb self in the leg and earn some prison time.  All I knew was that it was Eli Manning vs. Tom Brady.  Eli, the newly drafted little brother of one of the few names in football I recognized vs. the supermodel (who was married or engaged to the supermodel and had a child with another gorgeous woman in relationship circumstances that were as murky as Brangelina).  Since I adored Peyton, I decided to give Eli a chance.

How time flies.  Now Tom is still a brilliant, dominant player, Peyton is seriously injured and Eli has come into his own.  This game is killing me.

 

UPDATE:  the Giants won!  Woo Hoo!!!