Spring Cleaning...

... a little early.

I have finally decided to start reorganizing my yarn stash at my dad's house. I had previously kept my yarn in a large box:

This of course caused some "minor" tangling:

Needles to say, I had a lot of work to do on that. By the end of this morning, I had gotten this tangled mess so that all of the yarns except one were wound into neat little balls. The last type of yarn will be untangled soon.

This whole cleaning bit was inspired by my desire to start on my Christmas gift knitting. I was trying to find the right yarn for a project but was unable to as all my yarn was tangled. Hence the cleaning.

After that, I decided to start Sheldon which will be a gift for my little cousin(who happens to be the cutest little kid ever). I have begun to knit it in Peaches and Cream cotton yarn in green and blue.

I am having some problems with the pattern. Not errors, per se, but just some frustration. It is really awkward to knit the cotton yarn on size 3 needles. I like the gauge it gives me but I hate doing the increases and decreases. I just keep thinking about how nice and cute it will look when I am done. I have already gotten through the tail, body, and neck. Hopefully tomorrow I will finish the head although I have a lot of homework.

On the sock: I was up to the heel by the time I was leaving my grandparents house to get to the airport so I could go home. I was unable to print out the instructions for the short-row heel before we left. I was also not really happy with how the foot was going. I ended doing a lot of increases and decreases to make it fit which sort of warped it. So, when I got to the airport about an hour and half early, I decided to rip the sock out all the way to the toe.

By the time I got off the plane I had done this much:

I probably could have done more but I was sort of knitted out. My hands aren't used to such small needles and tight gauge. I will be working this in between Christmas gifts and school(which is kicking my ass right now).

And now, I will be reviewing my artist of the day. Today's musical artist happens to be: Movits! Movits! is a band is a swedish band that sort of combines rock, SKA, and jazz. They have one album out entitled Appelknyckarjazz(and don't ask me to say that). It is really fun to listen to, great dance music. They're most famous song is Fel Del Av Garden. Check out the music video on youtube.

Alright, that's about it. Off I go!

Tired

Oi, I am sooo tired. Had a great day today. Woke up around 7 in the morning and read knitting blogs while knitting my socks. Then, I went in the pool and took a nice walk in the brisk air. After resting a bit, the whole family went on an adventure to south Miami and then moved on to Lan which is a pan asian restaurant that my grandparents go to every week. I am so full and tired but so incredibly happy as well.

My sock looks about the same just longer. I'm hoping to do the heel tomorrow before we get on the plane so I don't have to worry about printing instructions out for the ride. On the plane I will probably get a lot of knitting done because I will watch La Dolce Vita on my laptop. I also downloaded a knitting podcast called Never Not Knitting. I have just recently gotten into podcasts and now that I have a working iPod, I can download them. If anyone knows of any good ones I'd love to hear about them.

Speaking of music, this past year I have found out about a lot of new music groups. I think I will do a review of a group on every blog post. How does that sound? So, for today's post I will talk about Petra Haden. Petra Haden is a singer/violinist who does some really amazing vocal work. If you look her up on google, I believe you will be able to hear some of her music including a completely sung version of Don't Stop Believing. It's great. I recommend her album Ten Years. The first track of that is called Landing on Earth which is how I originally found out about her. It's quite beautiful and I urge you to look her up.

Well, that's about it. I'd better get back to knitting!

Sock!

I'm in Miami, Florida right now visiting my family for Winter Break. There are three knitters who come every year and we love to go to this amazing yarn shop: Anneke's Neadlework. That store is a knitter's dream. It has all sorts of yarn(and a whole wall of Noro) and great atmosphere. Now, we went there and then also went to a new yarn shop The Knitting Garden which is alright. It stocks good yarn but is not set up as well as I would have liked. You have to ask the store owner to get the needles for you which is very inconvenient. Nevertheless, I found some lovely sock yarn: Cherry Tree Hill.

This is my first time using this sock yarn and I love it. It is soft and squishy and comes in beautiful colors. I bought some fire orange colored yarn and have just started some toe up socks for myself. I finished the toe and am working through the foot.

I was not a fan of toe up socks for a very long time but I really like how this is going. It is also helpful because I don't know exactly how much yarn I've got and I want to use as much of it as possible. I also like the ease with which I can try the sock on to make sure it fits. I started the toe with a figure eight cast on, which is awkward to do but I like how it looks. I will be doing a short row heel because I love the look and it's so much easier than other heels in my opinion.

I have decided to make gifts for next year's Christmas(like how early I'm planning?) and have already gone through ravelry and found patterns for most people in my family and a few friends. I decided not to do any sweaters and to just stick to small things although I do plan on making a tank top. I'm going to start these projects when I get back to LA.

Besides reading and going in the pool, I have also been reading. I read Ayn Rand's Anthem which I really enjoyed. I know many people don't like her style but I read Fountainhead two years ago and loved it. I plan on reading more by her. Now I'm working through Proust: Remembrance of Things Past. It's slow going but I like it. It requires immense comprehension and I can't work with people talking around me. Instead, I have been listening to an album of Gregorian Chants that I got. I love Gregorian chants. People think they are boring or simple but I love the sound. I'm not a religious person at all, but these chants make me feel like I am in a great Cathedral in Europe(which are quite beautiful).

That's about it. I'd better get back to that knitting!