And Here You Go, a Friday FO!

Friday is upon us, and after this week, it is even more than usually welcome.  Plus, today I have an FO to share with you - seems like it's been a while!

I finished a pair of socks for myself.  You may recall that I had completed a single sock of the Georgia Socks pattern, and decided to move on to something else.  I was still wanting to make a pair of shortie summer socks, and as I said when finishing the first sock, I don't mind scrappy socks, just not changing yarns really frequently.

So I made myself a pair of shortie socks the way *I* wanted to do it.

As you can see in the photo, the heel on one of them has two different yarns, but since they are for me, I don't mind.  It's also far enough down on the heel that you won't see it when the socks are worn in shoes.

Project:  Watermelon and Mojito Shortie Socks

Pattern:  Vanilla shortie sock pattern of my own

Yarn:  Watermelon Self-Striping Yarn from Artistic Yarns by Abi; West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4-ply in Mojito; and the yellow and golden brown are from tiny remainders in my stash that I no longer can identify.  

Needles:  US size 1

Modifications:  Well, none since it is my pattern and I make it up as I go along ...

Notes:  I love the finished socks!  All of the yarn is leftovers from my stash, and the two main yarns are from two of my favorite pairs ever.  They seem extremely summery to me.  Originally, I was going to call them Watermelon, Mojito, and Lemonade Socks, but then I ran out of the yellow yarn (aka "Lemonade") so I adjusted my name for them.  

When I make pain vanilla shortie socks, I just knit 12-18 rounds of 2 x 2 ribbing, then an inch to 1.5 inches before starting the heel flap and gusset, and then just knit after that until they are the length I want and finish off the toe.  They generally go pretty quickly, and all of the pairs I've made like this are very comfy and well-fitting on my feet.  I seem to do best with the heel flap and gusset construction, at least of the options I have tried so far.

So I am very happy to have both another pair of finished socks, as well as an FO to share after what seems like a long time.  

*****

I started to wind the yarn for my next pair last night, and it was clear it was one that was not going to cooperate with the winder.  I have about 90% of it wound, and there is some more untangling left for tonight before I can even start thinking about next steps.  But I'm ready to start a new pair, so I'm determined to have the yarn bend to my will!

Now I just have to get through this workday without a) killing anyone, and b) going insane.  There's a better chance of "a" being easily accomplished because none of these people are worth doing time, if you get my drift.  ;-)

Happy weekend to all of you!

Coming Up

Well this week has been annoying.  Mostly work stuff, but since I sadly spend more of my time at work than anywhere else, it has just plain sucked.  Fortunately, tomorrow is 

Friday, and the weekend beckons.  

And I have decided to participate in Three on Thursday, so I am giving you Three Things I Am Looking Forward to This Weekend.

1.  Getting my hair cut.  It's sticking out in places where it shouldn't and is driving me crazy.  Having it back to the way I like it will do a lot for my state of mind.

2.  Finishing the body of the bee on my cross-stitch project.  I have about one half of the second wing, and the outline border to go before the entire bee will be finished.  Then the honeycombs around the border and their outlines are all that will be left to do.  I'm still enjoying it, but am also looking forward to starting another project.

3.  Casting on a new pair of socks.  For the first time in a while, I have no socks on the needles, and that is just wrong.  I pulled yarn from my stash last night, and once it's wound and ready, I'll be ready too!  Right now, I'm not sure if I'll do a plain sock or try a relatively simple pattern, but that's part of the fun, don't you think?

What are you looking forward to this weekend?

Best Laid Plans and All That

Hello and I'm glad to be back!  It's been quite a few days, let me tell you.  Frustration mixed with fun.

First the primary frustration - I had all of the packages from Christmas in July ready to go (except the one for Roslyn, who I have not heard from yet), and walked them up to the post office on Friday.  But the post office had apparently suffered an electrical outage, and was closed.  So don't be on the lookout for your packages, because when I tried to send them again yesterday, there was a sign saying they would not be open until Thursday, due to electrical issues.  Sigh.  So hopefully I can get them out this coming Saturday - I'll keep you posted.  In the meantime, FRUSTRATING!!!

And Roslyn - please contact me!!  If I don't hear from you by this Friday, August 9, 2019, I'm going to choose someone else for the final prize.  I checked on Ravelry, and the only person with your name in the same location had a photo that did not match yours at all, so I hesitated to contact her.  Please e-mail me at baclancyATverizonDOTnet with GIVEAWAY in the subject line!!

Moving on.

Yesterday I was all set to tell you about our weekend trip.  The weekend in Baltimore was SO. MUCH. FUN.  We got to see nearly everyone, and the weather was fairly hot but not humid, so going around to different places was actually enjoyable.  However, our Internet was down for the whole day, so I couldn't post anything at all (secondary frustration).  Grrrrrr.  I do have some photos to share, but they are all currently still in my camera, so you'll see them later. 

Lots of catching up, lots of laughs, and tons of food and drink.  Hamlet is still recovering.

Guess what?  No rats were seen.  SAD!  ;-)

Furball Friday - Koodle Edition

The Koodle would like me to remind you that he is adorable.

I would like to warn you that this is a typical Koodle M.O. - you see him and think, look at that sweet kitty, showing his belly, I think I'll give it a rub.

And then you come up with a bloody stump.  So proceed at your own risk.  I'm sure that our cat sitter will see this a lot this weekend, while we are in Baltimore - I just hope he remembers from the last time! 

Of course, we will likely be busy fighting off rodents, since according to The Orange One, Baltimore is infested with them, so maybe I shouldn't talk ... 

Have a good weekend!  I'm sure there will be many good stories to share, and for any of you wondering, I'm 99.99999% certain there will be at least one plate containing hard milk products.  :-)

Hardy Har Har

Sometimes everyone's inner 10-year-old boy surfaces, and stupid/rude things strike you as just simply hilarious.  I haven't done Three on Thursday for a while, so I decided this was as good a week as any.

So I am sharing Three Stupid Things That I Found Amusing This Week.

1. Dogs for Sale.  This one isn't really part of the 10-year-old boy oeuvre (that's the next two), but I still got a heavy duty laugh out of it.  My niece Annie posted on Facebook that she had seen "The Muppet Movie" in the theater the other night as part of the 40th anniversary of its release.  She wasn't even born when it came out, but she loves the Muppets and wanted to see it in the theater as opposed to on television.

The Tim and I went with another couple, and about 5 minutes before the movie started, one of the ushers came down the aisle of the theater and made some kind of announcement which none of us heard all that well.  But Kenny, the husband in the other couple, said as the usher left, "Well that was a crazy thing."  We all kind of looked at him in a puzzled fashion, and found out that what he heard was that the usher had "dogs for sale."  (The guy sitting in front of us turned around and said, "No, he was saying that they were having trouble with the projector, so the movie would start a bit late."  It was just so ridiculous, that the rest of us laughed until we cried, and thinking of it still makes me laugh pretty hard.

2.  Unfortunate Names.  Today on the morning news, they showed a photo of a man who had been arrested for something, and his name is Dick Wang.   Which of course we found hilarious.  But that reminded me of a former co-worker who had a classmate in elementary school whose name was Sheldon Fartslinger.  For real. 

3.  Famous Family Quotes.  This coming weekend, we will be in Baltimore (you know, that rat-infested place where no human being wants to live) visiting with some family and probably doing a lot of laughing.  I was thinking of the one time when The Tim and I went to visit when my one sister's family were in Bethany Beach for a vacation, and we went to spend the night.  All of my nieces were pretty young, and Annie, the youngest, was probably about 8 years old.  We arrived really late at night, and my brother-in-law had set out a plate of cheese and crackers.  But instead the cheese was just a block, and he put a knife on the plate.

Everyone was chatting, and The Tim picked up the knife.  Annie wanted to be part of the conversation, so she said loudly "Stop everyone and look!  Uncle Tim is cutting the cheese."  Of course, we all started laughing, and she realized what she had said, so she tried to improve on it by saying, "No, what I meant was he is slicing the hard milk product."  Which seemed so much funnier.

Poor Annie, she is almost 40 years old now, and whenever anyone puts out a cheese plate, someone says, "Who is the one who's going to slice the hard milk product?"

Because we cannot ever let things go.  Ever.