Back Home... Coriolis Socks

The Coriolis socks for my father-in-law are all done. Here they are:



Husband was kind enough to model them:



I really like these socks. The thickness (due to double stranding) will make them perfect walk around the house socks, which is perfect for the recipient. I may make a pair for myself. This pattern is totally appropriate for hand-dyed, highly varigated yarn, here is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in Pinstripe. These socks took about two skeins on number 5 needles, cuz I'm super loose. I'm not worried about them not fitting, because if they don't, they'll go to NH, as they obviously fit him.

A pair of Jaywalkers in the same yarn will be going to my mother in law. However, I couldn't start them this week for two reasons. One, I don't want the inlaws to see their presents early, even though they know what they're getting. Secondly, I had to finish the Baby Kimono for a coworkers newborn. That got done, with pictures to follow after it's washed. I also got a little bit of Husband's Ugly Brown Sweater done, and hopefully will have it done within the week.

So, for all my good intentions, I didn't get a chance to visit any yarn shops while in South Carolina, or even to take a decent picture of the absolutely gorgeous trees. These are the only pictures I have, they were taken on the way out there.





We had 8 people for Thanksgiving dinner, which is a lot for Nerdy Husband's family, but a lot less than would be expected from my family, (our holiday get-togethers are closer to 20 or 30 people). We also had 4 dogs, all very cute.

Here they are being wrangled by my mother-in-law and sister-in-law. The dogs (from left to right) are Indy, Snowball, Bosley, and Nico:



We even managed to get three of them without people to hold them down. Snowball is a proper lady, and doesn't play too much with all the boy dogs and she opted out of this one. Nico's wearing a cute blue hoody.



We ended up leaving a day early, so I didn't get a chance to take pictures of the trees or visit the lys which I have been trying to visit for over a year. It was a good thing we left when we did, because when we got back I had a call about a family emergency down South, so we got to pack up and head out again.

Now we're back home, and I'm listening to Christmas music on Pandora, and there's chili in the slow cooker. This time of year is great, even though it's still in the 70's here.

Fall is in the Air

Forget spring, fall is my favorite season. It's here, and this is how I know.



One branch of the trees behind the condo has turned a beautiful orange. Not sure if it died or is changing for the season. We're going to go with changing, as some of the other needles have a tint of orange as well.

We've cleared most of the boxes out of the dining room, and made some good finds at some pumpkin patches to make a nice centerpiece.


This is the Mario Mushroom gourd


and the Biohazard Squash


Here's the first round of pumpkins and gourds, set up all nice and pretty.



Then one of our pumpkins (the big one of course) started oozing onto our new, never-before-used table. Nice. So, we ended up going to a pumpkin patch while we were visiting my family, and found the Mario Mushroom Gourd. After we got back, we carved the pumpkins, and added our new squash, and this (and some pumpkin seeds) is what we were left with.



Here's My Nerd's skull Jack-o-lantern


and my Maleficent.

Not bad considering we used steak knives and a nail as our tools. We used the paddle from our rice cooker as well, it was great for scooping out the guts and seeds. The pumpkin seeds themselves are no where to be seen in the pictures, mostly becuase they don't last long enough to get pictures taken of them. And they're just seeds.

In the past week, I've made most of the first Coriolis sock of a pair I'm giving my father in law for Christmas. I've also been working on a dishcloth along with my knitting group. And it's a disaster.

The KAL in general is going ok. But I've made a serious error in judgment, one that I shouldn't have. Because I just wrote and recorded a segment on gauge for the podcast. And I've had gauge disasters before. I figure that since it's a dishcloth, gauge isn't that important. Well, instead of a dishcloth I have a bathmat. A small one, but a bathmat nonetheless. It's huge. I didn't realize this was a problem while making each of the five petals because it's the worst photographed pattern ever, and you can't see how large the petals are compared to the center. I thought the petals comprised most of the dishcloth, and that the center would be small. Then I saw a finished one at my group, and almost cried. It's almost all center, the petals are very small. I also ran out of yarn, and I started with a full ball. That should tell you something.

I never planned to actually use it as a washcloth, as it's made out of Lionbrand VelvetSpun that I had in my stash. I don't know how the polyester chenille would hold up to regular washing. I will probably use it almost as a doily, on part of my desk that I don't write on. Or perhaps under my computer monitor. Or maybe, if I ran some icord just inside the border where the petals are joined, I could make it into a purse. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone who would wear a bright yellow chenille purse with petals around it.

Either way, I think this qualifies under "Disaster" on KnitWars.