As I’ve written about before, August is our Official Birthday Month here at Chez Goth. There are, um, 13 or so at last count. So far, we’ve gotten through three of them. Four if you count today. M, my daughter’s other mom, turns 25 today. She had mentioned last December that she and her friends were dreading turning 25. I had to work really, really hard not to laugh out loud. “Yeah, I remember 25. I think…”

But anyway, we’re here to talk about fiber things. Right? Yes. Of course we are. So, then, here’s M’s Winter Solstice/Yule/Xmas present – all 2″ of it:

It’s the top 2″ of a pair of arrgyles (chart is in the left hand sidebar). M loves skulls, so I figured she’s like these. I must be insane, but I think I can have them finished and blocked before Winter Solstice. Did I mention I’m doing these in the round?

I also printed out a couple of patterns from the Lughnasadh edition of The Anticraft; Tepes and the Bat Shawl. And it may work out that I can take my mom’s sweater with me this weekend to present it in person – before her birthday. In that case, I’ll get her to model it for the blog.

Yep, my mom’s sweater is almost finished. Here’s a shot of it after its latest bath, before it’s completely blocked/smoothed out:

Not quite done, but almost

I really liked spinning the yarn for this. In retrospect, I probably could have planned the color changes better, but the yarn wound up being kind of pretty. Just hope she likes it…
Speaking of color, for some bizarre reason it looks blue (at least on my browser). It’s not. It’s a variegated gray.

In other things, school started last Friday. School Girl has had a good first two days, I think. She’s got some familiar faces from last year in there, including her best friend, so that’s helped quite a bit. Her teacher seems pretty good; I’m anxious to go over there for Parent Night on Thursday, when we’ll find out a little more.

I’ve also started…two more pairs of socks and, um, something else. Plus I’m sort of working on a new yarn, based on what’s left of the CVM cross fleece I’ve got left over from Mom’s sweater. It’ll involve dyeing, but it’s still nice enough to do a lot of that outside, so it shouldn’t be too painful.

Oh, and the Colorado “primaries” are today. Just because we aren’t voting for President right now doesn’t mean there aren’t people to vote for today. So get out there.

I should do a series of these…

• My Mom’s Sweater is finally finished, save for the weaving-in of ends and blocking. The good news? This year she’ll have a birthday present…
• I’m still slogging away on a crocheted D20 and my Serafina’s Shawl.
• I’ve just barely started (as in: now I have the yarn) a couple of new projects: a pair of Arr-gyles (is it stupid of me to attempt them in the round, and just keep the floats short?) and a chess set.

This is the official last day of our summer. School Girl goes back for 1/2 hour tomorrow morning and then a full day on Friday. I’ll have more by then. Maybe.

Well, I finally have an FO to show. Actually, I’ve had an FO to show for the past three days. Just haven’t gotten up the nerve to write about it yet.

The Zombie Socks are done. Here they are…

My Zombie Socks are done. Stick a lighted fork in 'em.

They were a lot of fun to make. I’m pretty happy with the way they turned out. Even though it’s now in the upper 90s, probably for the forseeable future, and too hot even for my hiking anklets. I’m just hoping it won’t be hot forever.

The best parts: I really like the way the variegated yarn works with the dropped stitches. Really, really like it. I also liked the garter stitch border on the heel flap, which also seems to work for me.

The worst parts: Once again, when there are huge distractions going on around me, my ADD-addled brain can’t seem to handle more than a very, very basic pattern done in the Usual Way. So, with everything that went on in the past two months, with the end of school, visitors and the like, these socks took far longer than normal.

My mom’s sweater is almost finished. I have half of the edge ribbing finished, and am almost finished with the other half (just about 3/4 of an inch to go). Then all I have to do is weave in the ends, sew in the sleeves, and block. Oh, and figure out by telepathy whether my mom wants buttons or not on her cardi. She refuses to tell me – if I have to hear “Oh, honey, it doesn’t matter. Whatever’s easiest for you“, I will most likely explode. Really.

I’ve got some yarn and a half tub of fiber left. I’m not sure what it’ll turn into, but I’ll most likely make the last 3 bobbins on there now into three last skeins of worsted-weight 3ply. After that…I’d like to try some overdyeing while the weather’s still good enough to do some outside. But we’ll see. There are only 3 1/2 weeks of summer left to us here.
So…after the sweater is done, I’ll be doing some crocheting. I’d really like to finish the Seraphina’s Shawl, and my d20. And I’ll be starting on something else – since it’s Evil Dad’s holiday present, I can’t write about it now. Shhh…

So…this weekend, even with my numerous handicaps, I finished Zombie Sock #1 and cast one for Sock #2. Pictures are coming up, just as soon as my hand heals up a bit more. As it is right now, I’m typing with all 7 working fingers (9 if you count thumbs on space bars and such). Such a stupid thing, too…I am no longer allowed to use a sharp object (like, say, a chef’s knife) unsupervised by a competent adult.

Oh, and we’re going to see if School Girl is well enough to make it to her kindergarten graduation tomorrow. I finally took her to the doctor after this latest round of the icks. Apparently, it’s not pneumonia, as it’s in only one lung and not both. Plus I’m not sure if she’ll be allowed to participate (which would really suck, I’ve gotta say) as she’s been out for the past 3 days now. Oh, and did I mention that C (School Girl’s other grandmother) is coming up for this? Ugh…if it were only over now.

But enough about that… I really like how the sock turned out. The fit around is just right, and the pattern really does look nice with the striped yarn. You’ll see soon.

Well, now that I’ve managed to open up my cut once again, I’ll finish this up for now.