Yes, We Did!

Amazing night, wasn't it? Sorry I've been absent for so long - I don't think I've ever gone over a month without a post before. This whole having a job thing really puts a crimp in my lifestyle :-) I spent most Saturdays doing some phone calling and doorknocking and Sundays with football, so I just haven't had a lot of time for blogging. They both paid off, though. We have a new President, and it's the one I wanted and I'm in first place in my fantasy football league. Yay and yay! I also was sick for a little while, but I'm feeling tip top now, so let's get back into the swing of things!

I have a ton of things to blog about, but let's go with the knitting this time, since this is supposed to be a knitting block. I finished up a couple more thing for the Knitters for Obama project:



A pair of socks from Woolease, and a matching hat:



The sock pattern was my own - one I cobbled together from a couple of other sources and measurements of Bill's feet. The hat is Ellen's Knit Hat and I really liked it a lot. If you're looking for a basic worsted weight hat pattern, I can recommend this one.

I was the collection point for the delivery of KFO goodies to the Minnesota Assistance Council for Vets. This is a great organization that does a lot of good stuff for our vets here in Minnesota, so if you're looking for a good organization to get involved with, I can't recommend them highly enough. I got a stack of hats:



scarves:



and washclothes and soap:



I had three big bags full of stuff to deliver, which was so much fun. They handed out a few of the items this week and it looks like the guys really enjoyed their new warm woolies!



I also finished up a pair of socks for myself:



Project Name: Froot Loop Socks
Pattern Source: Knitty, Spring 2008
Yarn: Chestnut Bay Fibers Galloping Colors in the Vikings colorway
Yarn Source: Chestnut Bay Fibers
Date Started: 8/30/08
Date Completed: 10/08 (I can't remember when I actually finished them)

Comments: I made these socks as part of a knitalong on the footballalong group on Ravelry. The colors are really beautiful and I can't capture them on my camera - it's a very true Vikings purple. The yarn is very soft and lovely, but it is a bit thin. I liked the pattern a lot. It's easy to memorize, but still interesting to knit. I think it would work better with a solid color and the darkest purples do swallow the texture, but I still like how it turned out. I liked the striped pooling of the colors and the variations kept the knitting interesting.

Update

Now that it's officially fall, I'm keeping busy, but most of it is not really good blog material. It's election season, so I've been doing some volunteer work for the DFL and watching hours of political/news coverage. The debate was really fun to watch and I can't wait to see the VP debate this week. Most of my readers are progressives like me, so do what you can to make sure things change this time!

It's football season too. The Vikings have been pretty disappointing, but thank goodness they won last week or else I'd really be depressed. You feel like such a chump when you dump so much money into season tickets and then the games suck. My fantasy football teams are doing pretty well. I'm in first place in the league I care the most about, the one I've been in for the last 10 years that my brother is also in.

The new television season has started too. I haven't seen anything new yet, but it's good to see some old favorites return. With the writer's strike last year, it's been a while for some of these shows, and I'm happy to see them. I'll do my usual fall tv post in about a month or so.

With all that extra tv watching, I have been doing some knitting. I finished up the first of my Vikings Froot Loop socks:



The yarn (Chestnut Bay Fibers) is a little thinner than I'd like, so I hope these don't wear out too quickly. I didn't want to mess around with changing the numbers in the pattern, so the gauge isn't as firm as I'd normally like. They do fit very nicely though.

I'm also knitting one more pair of socks for the Knitters for Obama drive.



I'm using Woolease for this pair and am almost up to the toe right now on this first one. I'm starting to collect stuff for the Minnesota group now, so I should be able to finish up the pair in time for my delivery to the Veteran's group.

And finally I'm doing a knitalong on the Elsebeth Lavold Ravelry group. I decided to make the Borghild sweater in a Silky Tweed I had in my stash:



I love this yarn. Soft and silky and also just gorgeous. It's gray and cloudy today, so I couldn't get a good shot of it without the flash and the flash overexposed it, so hopefully next time. But it's a lovely green with flecks of orange.

Show and Tell

I had a special request to see that necklace I'm wearing in the Mr. Greenjeans photo, so here it is:



I did not make it, but I got it at a craft fair last year. It's actually two-sided:



I love the colors on that side - the bright blues and golds are gorgeous. But I actually wear the other side quite a bit because it matches some tealish blues that I wear occasionally and don't have any other matching jewelery. I thought it was really a good value to get two pieces of jewelry in one!

Since I'm sharing, here's some stuff that I did make. Last weekend I made my yearly trip to the Scrapfest. Every year this event gets more and more popular. The lines for the make and takes were out of control. So, I took my classes and did fewer make and takes this year, so I have fewer completed projects and more works in progress, since the classes are only 45 minutes long, so you can't finish most things:



There's a couple of small books, some pages, some cards and a couple of other random stuff. I'm not sure I'll go back again next year. I do like the classes, but the crowds are just not fun for me. I took a vacation day to go Friday and it was super fun to sleep in and be off of work, though.

I'm also doing a knitalong for the Football Along group on Ravelry:



As I said when I first posted this yarn purchase, this isn't really blue, it's actually a beautiful purple. They're actually the perfect Vikings colors. I really like this yarn - it's from Chestnut Bay Fibers. It's very thin, but the fabric is nice. Very soft and cushy. The pattern is the Froot Loops pattern. It's an easy one to memorize and it keeps things interesting. Obviously, a solid yarn would show off the pattern better, but I actually don't mind the pooling look on these. Here's a close up: