Friday, November 7, 2008

New Heroes

So, I've been a Keith Olbermann junkie throughout the campaign, and still think he's great. He's extremely biased, but I'm cool with that, because he's honest about it, and he backs up every single thing he says with quotes and documentation.

Recently, I've also become a huge fan of Rachel Maddow.
I still like Olbermann, but I now like Rachel's new show even better. it's more fun to watch and some conservatives occasionally come on as guests (even if some of them are mean...bad move David Frum!). Her ongoing disagreements with her friend and fake uncle, Pat Buchanan are endlessly entertaining.

Also, I gotta say, Nate Silver
and his awesomely geeky blog kept me sane during the last month of the campaign. Turns out I was completely right to trust his calming and very positive predictions. Almost all of his election forecasts were correct. You rock, NATE! The geeks will inherit the earth. Now that the election is over, he and some of my other favorite bloggers, are reporting on the transition and I am fascinated by every word.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Let's try this again

This is a short post just to prove to myself that I am capable of blogging again...the election, work, Ravelry, and life in general has sucked me away from my blogging. I will try to post regular short bits and show off my new knitted bits. Speaking of which, here's what I've been up to lately:

Socks for my mom-in-law, Serita for a holiday gift:
She doesn't know about these socks yet, but since she also doesn't know about the blog, I think I can safely post them. These are the common 'Monkey' socks but I shifted the pattern 8 stitches so it would be centered on top and I like it much better. The yarn is STR lightweight from Blue Moon Fiber Arts and the colorway is Lunasea.

Socks for me with a cool honeycomb like pattern:
The pattern is called 'Replicating Anemone Rib', but I think it looks so much like a honeycomb pattern, that at some point I want to do more of these socks in a honey color. Mark also loves this pattern, so he will get a pair of socks with this pattern at some point. This is a RSC club exclusive colorway called Tidepooling which I am so in love with.

Socks for my mom for Hannukah:
I used the flame wave pattern, found in 'Favorite Socks', but I altered the pattern to be used for finer yarn. (70 stitches on 2.5mm needles instead 56 stitches on larger needles). So far these are coming out even better than expected. The flame wave pattern looks really good with the variegated yarn:
The yarn is STR lightwight from Blue Moon Fiber Arts and the colorway is Alley Opp.


And finally, I am working on a wrap cardigan that I love:
I am half done with the second sleeve. After that I still have ends to sew in, I-cords ties to make, and given that I have some yarn left over I think I may redo the bottom and add an inch or so. I love this yarn (Berroco Jasper - Verdes Lavras colorway) and the pattern is the neckdown wrap cardigan from Knitting Pure & Simple is a good introduction to making and fitting a sweater.

That's more than enough for now.