Back to Knitting (And A Little Crochet)

My post on February 9 (which seems like at least a month ago now) was about a Flash Craft-A-Long that ESK was doing and I showed you a pair of socks. Later that very morning I frogged the partial sock I had shown you and restarted using a different pattern.  There's nothing wrong with the Love Bugs socks, but I had wanted to knit them top down instead of toe up and I was having to make too many decisions and changes to get them done in the time frame for the CAL.  When I saw the Fairy Maiden socks, I knew they would be fast to knit once I memorized the stitch pattern.  They were also worked top down so I wouldn't have to do much thinking while knitting them!

Here are the finished Fairy Maiden socks.  I stopped the hearts on the foot and just went with the ribbing because I thought that would wear better and I thought the hearts might be uncomfortable on my foot in a shoe.  They are knit in Sweet Georgia Yarns Tough Love Sock in Peony.

I also made a few Palpitation Hearts.  One of them is made from the leftovers from my mosaic shawl, A Walk in the Woods, one is Hedgehog Fibres in their fingering weight singles in Dragonfly, and three are Malabrigo Mechita in Anniversario.

Finally, I was able to get two Heart Shaped Cloths out of some leftover yarn that was a prize from the ESK Yarnathon the year of the candy theme.  I can't remember the base but the color is A Sweet Race.  They are about the size of a mug rug, in other words they've got room for a mug and little snack on them.

Sorry not to include links, but I'm typing this blog entry one handed because I have Newton the Noodle laying in my lap across my other arm.  I do have Ravelry project pages for all of these with full details on them, so if you're truly curious what patterns I used you can check it out there.

We're Still Here!

Just a quick blog post to let you know that we're still here!  

Texas was clobbered by winter this past week and a half, as you've probably seen.  The cold actually rolled in last week and then there was some icing, resulting in the huge pile up in Fort Worth last Thursday.  Then this past Sunday my mother-in-law called and said we might have rolling blackouts.  I was glad she had warned us because it's not something we think about in February and we just weren't paying attention.  Early Monday morning the rolling blackouts started.  We never fully lost power, just a lot of on and off, so that was a blessing.  Wednesday afternoon we had a pipe burst but Mickael got the water turned off quickly and since it was in the garage wall, it just sent water down the driveway.  We got a repairman out the next morning and he cut off the burst section of pipe and capped it so we could turn the water back on in the house.  He'll do the repair and patch the drywall this next week, but we were very blessed in the location of the burst pipe.  

On Wednesday night the rolling blackouts stopped.  As I mentioned, we've had water consistently except for the 12+ hours where we had to shut it off, but most of those were sleeping time anyway.  We had more than enough water to keep Logan and Newton hydrated and there were plenty of other liquids Mickael and I could drink for that brief time.  We do not have boil our water at this point.

Yesterday we got our internet back (we were previously only able to get online, send texts, make calls with our cell phones, and even then it was tough because the cell towers were slammed with everyone else trying to do the same thing).  We're thawing out around here and Mickael and I are periodically checking the entire house, turning on all the faucets just to make sure.  We had a second faucet freeze, but it didn't burst and we were able to get it going again.

Even Caleb was dealing with this down in Galveston.  He sent me pictures after the storms went through and there's just something wrong with palm trees standing in snow.  Hopefully their roots are deep enough that they'll survive.  He lost power completely as well as water, but they're back up and running now, although they can't drink the tap water.  The school (Texas A&M at Galveston) has stayed on top of things and kept the kids safe, warm, and fed.  They've got drinking water there for them too.

This past couple of weeks has been stressful and crazy.  The homes here are not built for the kind of cold we've had (neither are the people).  They're built to keep us cool in the summer with high ceilings and vents in the ceilings.  Everyone is tired, but the sun is out today, the temperature made it to the 50's (!!!!!), the repairmen are out fixing things as quickly as they can to get everyone back to normal.  We're thankful that we are safe and our families are safe.  I know not everyone was as fortunate.

Valentine's Socks

I kind of dropped off the radar last week, but I'm fine.  I didn't blog, but I was still knitting.  ESK started a Craft Your Heart Out Flash Challenge on February 1, so there have been a lot of heart things happening here!  I'll show you the rest later this week, but one of the things I'm working on is a pair of socks.

These are based on the Love Bugs pattern and knit in Sweet Georgia Yarns Tough Love Sock in Peony.  I say "based on" because the original pattern is toe up, but I tend to work faster in the cuff down direction, so I adapted the chart for working that direction.  I'll probably stop working hearts when I start the heel turn because I don't think twisted stitches will be comfortable on my foot in a shoe.  I've kind of stalled on these and I really should be farther along on them since the Flash Challenge ends on Valentine's Day, but maybe blogging about them will give me a bit of accountability and get me moving again!  Once I finish the first one, the second should go much faster.  (It better, or I won't have a finished pair of socks by Sunday!)