Hi there. My name is Carrieoke. I used to do things like spend time with my schmoos and play on the internet and comment on blogs and knit and sleep and exercise, and maybe sew. Now I do this: workschoolworkschoolworkschool. sleep. eat. repeat.

I thought I would take two summer classes to free up my fall semester, since I'm getting married in the fall. BAD IDEA JEANS. I mean, I'm surviving. And the classes are actually quite enjoyable and I'm learning a lot and all that. I'm just tired. and busy. and tired. sigh.

but. I got to buy a new USB fancypants headset with microphone, because my classes are online. LOOK HOW MUCH FUN IT IS.

jealous?I know you are.
and also, can I take your order?

okay! hi there! so much has been going on! I don't even know where to begin. ooh, I know - we moved my dad back to Georgia. We'd been missing him, and he'd been missing us (or really he'd been missing his grandson, BigHeadSchmoo, and who can blame him?) and it was the right time, so my sisters found him a great apartment, and we drove on up to North Carolina and packed him up and now he's here! yay Dad.

Dad says hi.

Also, my band played at Athfest last weekend, which is like a big fun Athens music festival that happens annually. It was the best show we've played in a long time. There were tons of people there, and the guys in my band may have made three million dollars in fake money with our faces on it and thrown huge wads of the money into the crowd while screaming "Make it rain!" Maybe.

I know. They are totally insane.

It was fun times.

I'm still knitting away on my sockapaloooza sock number two. I finished sock one, and it is lovely. My first sock with both a short row heel and toe, and I'm pretty happy with the result. I can see why some folks don't so much like the short heel - but I'm totally converted to a short row toe. It's beautiful.

Number One, you're the best!

Anywho. After July 3, I'll have a little less on my plate, and hopefully more time for my schmoos and knitting and exercise. In that order. Hope your summer is lovely and peaceful.

Posted by Carrieoke at 10:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (32)

So, our dogs got into it again. Both dogs are fine - albeit a little scratched up. Gah. and also Sigh. Bella has been trying to get at her wounds, and consequently, she has to wear this:

Bella is mad.
(sorry for the psychedelic black and white, but the lighting was bad and I wanted you to see her face.)

The vet recommended putting a t-shirt on her. I promise I didn't do that for my own amusement. Although we did giggle. A lot. Poor schmoo.

I'm not going to talk about the doggy situation because I'm sad and it's lame and that's that. Harumph.

I will talk about socks instead.

Stripey socks for my sock pal! The Fiber Denn yarn is turning out fabulously. I lovelovelove the stripes...

Green + black = STRIPEY FUN TIMES.

I'm actually even further than this now. What do y'all think is a good length for socks (from the ankle up, I mean?) I can't decide. I'm about 10 stripes up the leg right now. I love these socks! I might be a toe-up convert, for real. And the fun thing about this yarn is the striping looks so nice that it's almost *better* with a plain old sock.

The sock also went to band practice with me on Monday:

Rock out with your sock out. Har.

My band is playing at Athfest next weekend, so we decided that a practice was in order. (The Bling Boyz do not have any sort of organized practice situation. Bless their hearts.) I discovered that the leg of a purely stockinette toe-up sock is the BEST practice knitting ever. I might have to knit on stage.

If I knit on stage, I will hopefully look much cuter than this.

In other news: I'm taking two summer classes, and they are keeping me busy. I'm taking two this summer in hopes that I can only take one in the fall (or maybe none) when I'm about to get married. We'll see how it goes...

Posted by Carrieoke at 3:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (28)

Yep, it's that time again - I'm sockapaloooza-ing. I just can't resist the lure of a lovely pair of hand knit socks coming to me from a mysterious pal. And of course, I don't mind the excuse to knit a pair of socks. I have lots of sock yarn in the stash, but I just don't knit them very often.

This year's pal has me going back and forth. She likes greens, so I originally started a cable twist sock (Hello Yarn's pattern, slightly modified, inspired by Grumperina's mods.) I used some Koigu that I bought at Purl, and I was really liking the way the sock was turning out:

Yummy Koigu.

When I got to the heel, I tried THREE times to make the perfect short row heel. The first one was okay, the second one was hideous, the third was eh, and then I gave up. My other stress is that my sock pal has bigger feet than me, and I'm not used to how far a skein of Koigu will go. I became a worried schmoo.

Hmm.

Soooo.... I decided to buy some yarn. My sock pal also indicated that she loves stripes, so I decided to hunt down a big old fatty skein green stripey sock yarn. I found some I liked on etsy and ordered it up. [Edited to add: The yarn is midnight spruce, purchased from The Fiber Denn]

Oh boy! So, now I'm knitting a plain sock, toe-up (which is TOTALLY weird for me, but DUDE I'm loving the short row toe). Here's how far I am:

Stripey goodness.

I know it's not quite as glamorous as the cable twist, but I actually think my pal will like this sock better. We'll see if I change my mind by the time I get to the heel!

In other knitting news, I have been REALLY wanting to knit a skirt. I think it's because I like to wear cute casual skirts in the summer instead of shorts (because, really, who looks good in shorts? not. me.) and I have this yummy linen yarn in a deep purple that wants to be worn and loved this summer.

So I swatched for the Indigo Ripples skirt from the Spring IK. Love love this skirt, love Eunny's version, love it. I did a tiny swatch, eyeballed it, thought it looked close enough (danger) and started knitting.

Luckily, I decided to try on my skirt after a few increases to see where I was. Wanna see?

Har.

Note to self: close enough does NOT cut it when you are casting on 170 stitches. or really ever. Bad schmoo.

I ripped, but remeasured my gauge in the linen yarn, and I reworked the numbers of the pattern for my actual gauge, not my imaginary gauge. It looks a good bit smaller now - I'll try it on before getting too attached.

Thanks for all the comments on the Trellis, and the nephew. I like 'em both a great deal.

Posted by Carrieoke at 2:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (26)

This picture-heavy post is brought to you by the happiest one-year-old in the world: Big Head Schmoo.

Yay! It's my birthday!

BHS totally partied hard on his birthday, in just the way you would expect: CAKE.

Oh yes, it was that kind of party.

In between slinging cake and opening presents, the adorable BHS was able to squeeze in a photoshoot with his favorite Uncle Jacob (so Aunt Carrie can have proper FO pictures of the Trellis, of course.)

Standing!

You know the project: Trellis, from Knitty. I loved knitting this - I used Knit Picks Shine Worsted in Grass, and I was super happy with the result. I made the small body and the large sleeves (don't ask) and you can see in the pictures that BHS needed the sleeves rolled up. So, my recommendation would be to make the matching size sleeves and body. Duh.

This yarn is super soft, and only gets softer with machine washing. I made a Picovoli in this yarn, and pilling has been pretty minimal for me after several washings. I think this is a great yarn for baby clothes.

The buttons were purchased at The Point NYC and a close-up can be seen here on my Flickr account.

BHS says:

I am so stylish in my new sweater!
And also, pffffbbbttt.

Nephews are the best knitwear models.

Posted by Carrieoke at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (39)