I confess: my Sockapalooza socks came early, and instead of being a good Socker and waiting until August 2, I ripped into the package. Immediately. And found these lovelies inside:

My Socks!

And also...

My pal totally spoiled me!
A lovely knit pouch and a needle holder.

I love it all! The socks are super soft and they fit perfectly, and I've been using the pouch to tote my iPod around! (And did you see the adorable fabric on the needle holder?) These lovely gifts are courtesy of Elke. She is in Germany, and blogless (hi Elke) and she's a totally awesome Sock Pal. Thanks so much, Elke! I've been so lucky with Sockapalooza, and this year was another great time.

My pal's package went out already, and I'm crossing my fingers that she likes the socks and they fit...

So. I've been a busy girl, with the new job and the wedding getting really, really close...Accccccccccckkkkkkkkkkk. Our invitations are almost done (we'll be printing and cutting this weekend) and they feature a drawing by my dear friend Mary Jessica (who also drew the Carrieoke on the side of the blog). They also feature graphic design by my super talented brother-in-law David. Gotta love having the artistic friends and family!

Speaking of friends and family, my sisters Michelle and Cathy and my dear AM threw me and Jacob a kick-ass wedding shower this past weekend! There was extremely delicious food, and lots of booze, and lots of laughing, and an abundance of gifts... including...

A Wii Steering Wheel!
(Let's hear it for registering at Target!)

It was a fabulous weekend, indeed.

Well, I need to go address wedding invitations. Here's another confession: I sort of like addressing wedding invitations. And also? We forgot to book a hotel room for our wedding night. NOT STRESSED.

Posted by Carrieoke at 6:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (28)

Two finished projects! I decided that I need to wrap up some projects, and so I had a finishing frenzy this past week. First up: Sockapalooooza Socks!

Two stripey socks, almost identical twins.

My sock pal professed a deep abiding love for striped socks, so I found some stripey yarn in her colors at The Fiber Denn. In addition to being stripey, the yarn is extremely soft. Hooray! I knit these using the toe-up formula in Simple Socks, Plain and Fancy. These were my first completed socks to have short row heels (and toes). I lovelovelove the short row toe - LOVE IT - but I'm not sold yet on the heel, probably because I haven't totally mastered it yet. I am satisfied with the heels on these particular socks, but I think I can improve my technique.

Don't worry, sock pal, these are getting a bath in Soak tonight.

Finished in time! Hooray for Sockapalooooza! I hope she likes them.

And, Finished #2: a baby sweater!

EZ February Sweater.

I've been knitting this on and off for a little while, waiting for one of my pregnant friends to give birth so I could choose a recipient. (Yes, I have that many pregnant friends.) This one is going to little Ava. I used one skein of Cotton Ease and size 9s. I was hoping using bigger needles would make the sweater bigger, and honestly I'm not sure what size this sweater is. I'm going with the whole EZ philosophy that babies come in all sizes and it will fit her at some point....that works, right? This sweater is easy peasy, the pattern is easy to memorize, and it looks super cute. I want to try one of those crazy origami baby surprise sweaters next.

It's so satisfying to actually finish some knits after four false starts with The Impossible Knitted Skirt.

So, what else? This weekend, I read Harry Potter (sniff), watched Jacob play Resident Evil on the Wii (sooooooooviolent), took my dad grocery shopping (fun!) and played with the neph a little (Big Head Schmoo!). Bella got a new toy.

Schmoo's favorite toy.

Friday is my last day at my current job ... oh how I fear change. But it's good change. It is. Still scared, though. Guess I need to knit a whole bunch this weekend to calm my nerves...

Posted by Carrieoke at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (39)

Hi there! The crazy has slowly been winding down around here...the semester is almost over HOORAY and I survived and all of my projects are almost done. Of course, right in the middle of the super busy time of the semester, I got a call for a job interview ... a shiny, pretty job, where I can be creative and learn lots of new geeky stuff, and even work in my Master's field (Instructional Design and Development)...

Guess what? I. got. it.

I'm not gonna talk too much about it, but HOORAY YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY NEW JOBBY JOB! Ahem. I start in August. I'm super nervous but in a good way. Nervous. Nelly.

So, what else? I had a birthday on July 13, and it was very good. My sister was at cross country camp being a good cross country coach (sniff. she's already promised that she will NOT be at cross country camp for our 30th birthday), so I didn't get to hang out with her, which is always a bummer on our birthday. But, I did get to have the best karaoke birthday party EVER. Evidence of that is here:

I think I was singing Vibeology by Paula Abdul.

AM and Jenna.

Don't stop believin'.

Other pictures on Flickr, if you dare.

AM's birthday is July 21, so we rented a private karaoke room for fantastic joint birthday festivities, complete with wireless microphones and TWO TAMBOURINES, and a bunch of great friends. I love karaoke.

Jacob gave me the geekiest earrings ever, which I LOVE, and Bella gave me a prettypretty video iPod. oh boy oh boy oh boy! I can't wait to download podcasts...and TV shows...

On the knitting front, I have tried FOUR times to knit a skirt. Yes, FOUR. Yes, I knitted a (admittedly crappy) gauge swatch. Yes, I did math. They were all enormously huge and ill fitting. Harumph. Why am I obsessed with knitting a skirt? I have no idea. I think I need to put it away for a little while and find another skirt pattern. Or find a skirt pattern that is knit with yarn that I can afford. Or yarn in my stash. arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh the skirt is taunting me.

Instead, I start knitting again on Ye Olde Chevron Scarf That I Cast On in April and May Never Be Finished, and I knitted up a cute Elizabeth Zimmerman baby sweater (the February one - one sleeve to go). Tonight, I'm going to see if I can get gauge for this cute Berroco pattern which Silvia alerted me to.

and I'm gonna finish up my Sockapaloooooza Socks! They are sooooper close.

I hope my pal likes them!

Posted by Carrieoke at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (37)

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 (33)

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 (27)